XI B RARY 

OF  THE 

U  N  IVER.5ITY 
OF    ILLINOIS 

977.3 

$85; 
1918 


Latest  Date  stamped  below. 


MAR  1  0 198 
6  I 


NOV  1 


i 
JUM    2 

HOV  1  3 

DEC  Q6 


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MAR  051998 


1  8  19 


JUH  1 


L161_0-1096 


ILLINOIS  CENTENNIAL  PUBLICATIONS 

PUBLISHED  BY  AUTHORITY 

OF  THE 
ILLINOIS  CENTENNIAL  COMMISSION 


CLARENCE  WALWORTH  ALVORD 
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 


INTRODUCTORY  VOLUME 


ILLINOIS  CENTENNIAL  COMMISSION 

OTTO  LEOPOLD  SCHMIDT,  Chairman 
JESSIE  PALMER  WEBER,  Secretary 

EDWARD  BOWE  JOHN  SCHULZ 

MICHAEL  J.  DAUGHERTY  THOMAS  F.  SCULLY 

OSCAR  WILLIAM  ECKLAND  FREDERIC  SIEDENBUKS 

ROYAL  WESLEY  ENNIS  CHARLES-  H.  STARKEL 

EVARTS  BOUTELL  GREENE  JOHN  E.  TRAEGER 

HUGH  STEWART  MAGILL,  JR.  PETER  AUGUST  WALLER 
JAMES  BERNARD  McMANUS 


COMMITTEE  ON  CENTENNIAL  PUBLICATIONS 

EVARTS  BOUTELL  GREENE,  Chairman 
ROYAL  WESLEY  ENNIS  FREDERIC  SIEDENBURG 

OTTO  LEOPOLD  SCHMIDT  CHARLES  H.  STARKIL 


CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS 
INTRODUCTORY  VOLUME 


ILLINOIS   IN  1818 


BY 


SOLON  JUSTUS  BUCK 


SECOND  EDITION,  REVISED 


CHICAGO 
A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO. 

1918 


COPYRIGHT,  1917 

BY  THE 
ILLINOIS  CENTENNIAL  COMMISSION 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

ORGANIC  ACT  CREATING  THE  ILLINOIS  CENTENNIAL  COMMISSION  xv 

HISTORY  OF  THE  CENTENNIAL  COMMISSION xvii 

vs 

EDITORIAL  NOTE xxi 

AUTHOR'S  PREFACE xxv 

I.    THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE i 

II.    THE  PUBLIC  LANDS 36 

III.    EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT 56 

j             IV.    THE  PIONEERS  88 

V.    THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION 113 

VI.    SOCIAL  CONDITIONS   159 

""            VII.    THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION 181 

rt 

*          VIII.    THE  MOVEMENT  FOR  ADMISSION 207 

IX.    THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN 231 

X.    FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION 262 

XI.    A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION 294 

APPENDIX    318 

BIBLIOGRAPHY    321 

INDEX    327 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

PIASAU  ROCK  NEAR  ALTON frontispiece 

CANADIAN  Voyage ur i 

WA-BAUN-SEE,  POTTAWATOMI  CHIEF 4 

KEE-O-KUCK,  CHIEF  OF  THE  SAUK  TRIBE 8 

NABU-NAA-KEE-SHICK,  CHIPPEWA  CHIEF 14 

SHABBONA,  POTTAWATOMI  CHIEF,  FRIEND  OF  THE  WHITE  MAN 20 

MONK'S  MOUND,  ST.  CLAIR  COUNTY 26 

FRENCH  TRADER  26 

THE  BATEAU  32 

Coureur  de  Bois  AND  THE  SAVAGE 32 

A  TRAPPER  36 

INDIAN  LAND  CESSIONS  IN  ILLINOIS,  1818  (map) 41 

THE  FLATBOAT,  OHIO-BOAT,  OR  KENTUCKY-BOAT 44 

THE  KEEL-BOAT 44 

OLD  FRENCH  HOUSE  AT  PRAIRIE  DU  ROCHER 47 

A  CLEARING  48 

LEAD-BEARING  ROCKS  AND  FURNACE  NEAR  GALENA 48 

LANDS  ENTERED  IN  ILLINOIS,  1818  (map) 52 

EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  IN  ILLINOIS,  1818  (map) 59 

WOODEN  BEAM  PLOW 61 

HANDMADE  OX-YOKE 65 

CAHOKIA  68 

KASKASKIA    68 

PRAIRIE  DU  ROCHER 74 

ILLINOISTOWN  OR  EAST  ST.  Louis 74 

GURDON  S.  HUBBARD 80 

ALEXANDER  WOLCOTT,  INDIAN  AGENT  AT  CHICAGO 80 

MORRIS  BIRKBECK 84 

COTTAGE  AT  ALBION 84 

BACKWOODSMAN    88 

FLAX  AND  SPINNING  WHEELS 94 

JOHN  EDGAR 100 

GEORGE  FLOWER 104 


Page 

MRS.  GEORGE  FLOWER 108 

THE  PARK  HOUSE,  ALBION,  HOME  OF  RICHARD  FLOWER no 

PIONEER  SCENE  no 

GRAIN  CRADLE  116 

WEAVING  LOOM  124 

PRAIRIE  PLOW  130 

ASH  HOPPER  130 

RUINS  OF  FORT  DE  CHARTRES 138 

A  LOG  TAVERN 138 

JOHN  MARSHALL,  BANKER  AT  SHAWNEETOWN 148 

HANDMADE  SPECTACLE  CASE 159 

HANDMADE  BABY  CRADLE 161 

PRINTING  PRESS  164 

HANDMADE  BRACE 168 

TROUSSEAU  TRUNK  172 

PIANO  OF  MARTHA  FLOWER 172 

JOHN  MASON  PECK 176 

FOOT-WARMER   176 

CAIRO 178 

GERSHOM  FLAGG  178 

WOOL  CARDER  182 

FLAX  HACKLE  184 

OLD-FASHIONED  BED  192 

PIERRE  MENARD'S  HOME  AT  KASKASKIA 192 

NINIAN  EDWARDS  200 

Two  FLINTLOCK  DUELING  PISTOLS 204 

BEAR  TRAP  204 

GUN  USED  BY  WESTERN  TRAPPERS 204 

FLAX  BRAKE  210 

DANIEL  POPE  COOK 214 

NATHANIEL  POPE  220 

CHICAGO  IN  1820 228 

The  Illinois  Intelligencer 234 

A  LAND  GRANT 238 


Page 

EDWARD  COLES  242 

GREASE  LAMP  247 

SHAVING  HORSE  252 

TITLE-PAGE  OF  Valley  of  the  Mississippi 256 

SICKLE  262 

ELIAS  KENT  KANE 266 

JESSE  B.  THOMAS 284 

CONSTITUTION  OF  1818 292 

BUILDING  IN  WHICH  TERRITORIAL  LEGISLATURE  FIRST  MET 295 

SHADRACH  BOND   298 

GOVERNOR  BOND'S  HOME  IN  KASKASKIA 302 

ACHSAH  BOND   306 

PIERRE  MENARD   312 


XV 


AN  ACT  TO  CREATE  THE  ILLINOIS  CENTENNIAL  COMMISSION  AND 
TO   DEFINE  ITS   POWERS  AND  DUTIES 

SECTION  i.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  People  of  the  State  of  Illi- 
nois, represented  in  the  General  Assembly :  That  there  be  and  is 
hereby  created  a  commission  to  be  known  as  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tennial Commission.  Such  commission  shall  be  appointed  by 
the  Governor  and  shall  consist  of  fifteen  members,  who  shall 
serve  without  compensation,  but  who  shall  be  allowed  their 
actual  expenses  while  engaged  in  official  business  of  the  com- 
mission and  in  attending  meetings  of  the  said  commission.  In 
case  any  vacancy  shall  occur  on  said  commission,  the  Governor 
shall  fill  the  vacancy  by  appointment.  The  Governor  shall  desig- 
nate the  member  who  shall  be  chairman.  The  commission  shall 
elect  from  its  membership  a  secretary  and  may  engage  such  em- 
ployees as  shall  be  deemed  necessary. 

SECTION  2.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Illinois  Centennial 
Commission : 

I — To  arrange  for  and  conduct  a  celebration  in  honor  of  the 
Centennial  of  the  admission  of  the  State  of  Illinois  into  the 
Federal  Union. 

2 — To  compile  and  publish  a  commemorative  history  of  the 
State. 

3 — To  report  to  the  Fiftieth  General  Assembly  the  arrange- 
ments for  such  celebration. 

4 — To  make  a  complete  report  to  the  Fifty-first  General  As- 
sembly. 

SECTION  3.  The  Illinois  Centennial  Commission  shall  expire 
when  it  shall  have  completed  its  duties  and  shall  have  made  a 
complete  report  thereof  to  the  Governor  and  the  Fifty-first  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  including  a  complete  statement  of  its  receipts  and 
expenditures. 

SECTION  4.  Whereas,  an  emergency  exists;  therefore,  this 
Act  shall  be  in  full  force  and  effect  from  and  after  its  passage. 

APPROVED  January  21,  1916. 


xvu 


THE  ILLINOIS  CENTENNIAL  COMMISSION 

Many  citizens  of  the  state  of  Illinois  urged  that  the  year  1909, 
the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, be  observed  with  some  fitting  and  permanent  memorial ;  but, 
though  the  nation  and  the  state,  and  indeed  many  foreign  na- 
tions observed  the  great  anniversary  with  patriotic  assemblies, 
and  eloquent  addresses,  Illinois  did  not  erect  a  permanent  memo- 
rial in  the  form  of  an  impressive  temple  or  shaft  to  the  memory 
of  her  greatest  citizen,  nor  did  she  give  to  the  world  a  complete 
and  authoritative  history  of  the  life  and  achievements  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln. 

When  the  Lincoln  centennial  year  had  past,  thoughtful  per- 
sons began  to  look  forward  to  the  centennial  anniversary  of  the 
admission  of  the  state  of  Illinois  into  the  federal  union.  Among 
those  who  early  appreciated  the  significance  of  the  occasion  and 
the  opportunity  which  it  offers  the  people  of  Illinois  to  show  to 
the  world  the  wonderful  development  of  the  state  in  the  first  one 
hundred  years  of  its  existence  as  a  commonwealth  of  the  Amer- 
ican republic,  no  one  was  more  interested  than  the  late  Honorable 
Campbell  S.  Hearn  of  Adams  county,  a  senator  in  the  Illinois 
General  Assembly. 

Senator  Hearn  introduced  in  the  Forty-eighth  General  As- 
sembly a  resolution  creating  a  commission,  the  duty  of  which 
was  to  arrange  for  and  prepare  plans  for  a  fitting  celebration  of 
the  state's  one  hundredth  birthday.  This  commission  under  the 
resolution  was  to  be  composed  of  fifteen  members:  five  state 
senators  and  five  representatives  in  the  General  Assembly;  E.  J. 
James,  E.  B.  Greene,  and  J.  W.  Garner  of  the  University  of 
Illinois;  and  Otto  L.  Schmidt  and  Jessie  Palmer  Weber  of  the 
Illinois  State  Historical  Society. 

The  commission  met  and  organized  July  23,  1913.  Campbell 
S.  Hearn  was  elected  chairman  and  Jessie  Palmer  Weber,  sec- 
retary. 

Senator  Hearn  died  August  28,  1914.  He  gave  to  the  com- 
mission during  the  first  year  of  its  organization  enthusiastic, 
faithful,  and  self-sacrificing  service,  not  sparing  himself  when 


xvm 


pain  and  sickness  came  upon  him.  During  his  illness  he  ofter 
expressed  the  hope  that  he  might  live  to  participate  in  the  observ- 
ance of  the  centennial.  While  this  hope  was  not  realized,  yet  his 
name  will  ever  be  associated  with  the  commission,  its  labors  anc 
results,  as  the  originator  of  the  bill  creating  the  commission  anc 
its  chairman  for  the  first  year  of  its  activity. 

Senator  Hugh  S.  Magill,  Jr.  succeeded  Senator  Hearn  a: 
chairman. 

The  commission  has  been  subject  to  some  vicissitudes  causec 
by  doubt  as  to  the  legality  in  form  of  the  resolution  whicl: 
created  it.  This  uncertainty  was  the  result  of  the  fact  that  th< 
Centennial  Commission  was  one  of  the  state  commissions  whos< 
legality  was  questioned  by  the  so-called  "Fergus  suits."  Change; 
in  the  personnel  of  the  commission  were  made  because  in  th< 
opinion  of  the  attorney-general  of  the  state,  members  of  th< 
commission  appointed  as  members  of  the  legislature,  could  no 
serve  as  members  of  the  Centennial  Commission  on  the  expiratioi 
of  their  legislative  terms.  A  later  decision  of  the  attorney-gen 
eral  declared  that  under  the  constitution  of  the  state,  member! 
of  the  General  Assembly  are  not  eligible  to  appointment  to  an} 
civil  office  in  the  state,  and  thus  are  excluded  from  membershii 
in  the  Centennial  Commission. 

Happily  these  matters  have  been  adjusted  by  the  passage  of  i 
law  approved  by  Governor  Edward  F.  Dunne,  January  21,  1916 
authorizing  the  appointment  by  the  governor  of  a  commissior 
of  fifteen  members.  Under  this  last  mentioned  act  the  presenl 
commission  was  appointed.  It  held  its  first  meeting  February 
26,  1916,  and  elected  its  secretary,  the  chairman  having  beer 
under  the  act  of  organization  designated  by  the  governor. 

There  have  thus  been  three  organizations  of  the  commission. 
The  personnel  of  the  first  commission  1913-1915  was:  State 
Senators  Campbell  S.  Hearn,  Hugh  S.  Magill,  Jr.,  Logan  Hay, 
Henry  W.  Johnson,  Kent  E.  Keller;  Representatives  John  S. 
Burns,  John  Huston,  C.  C.  Pervier,  James  F.  Morris,  George  B. 
Baker;  President  E.  J.  James,  Professor  E.  B.  Greene,  Professor 
J.  W.  Garner  of  the  University  of  Illinois;  Otto  L.  Schmidt 
and  Jessie  Palmer  Weber  of  the  Illinois  State  Historical  Society. 


The  following  members  composed  the  second  commission: 
State  Senators  E.  S.  Smith,  chairman,  John  Dailey,  M.  W. 
Bailey,  Kent  E.  Keller,  Edward  J.  Hughes;  Representatives 
John  S.  Burns,  John  Huston,  William  J.  Butler,  Thomas  Boyer, 
Homer  J.  Tice,  and  the  same  representatives  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Illinois  and  the  State  Historical  Society. 

The  commission  under  its  present  organization  is  composed  of 
the  following  members:  Otto  L.  Schmidt,  chairman,  Jessie 
Palmer  Weber,  secretary,  Edward  Bowe,  M.  J.  Daugherty,  Oscar 
W.  Eckland,  Rev.  Royal  W.  Ennis,  Evarts  B.  Greene,  Hugh  S. 
Magill,  Jr.,  J.  B.  McManus,  John  Schultz,  Thomas  F.  Scully, 
Rev.  Frederic  Siedenburg,  Charles  H.  Starkel,  John  E.  Traeger, 
Peter  A.  Waller. 

On  its  organization  in  July,  1913,  the  commission  outlined  a 
general  and  comprehensive  plan  for  the  centennial  observance. 
Committees  were  appointed  which  immediately  began  their  work. 
The  principal  features  of  the  celebration  as  planned  are  general 
local  celebrations  throughout  the  state,  a  great  official  celebra- 
tion at  the  state  capital  with  impressive  exercises  and  distin- 
guished guests,  and  a  pageant  depicting  the  history  of  Illinois, 
which  will  be  historically  true  and  artistically  beautiful. 

It  is  hoped  that  there  will  be  erected  a  centennial  memorial 
building  which  will  be  an  enduring  monument  of  this  great  his- 
toric anniversary.  It  is  impossible  that  this  building  can  be  com- 
pleted but  the  laying  of  the  corner  stone  of  it  can  be  made  a  part 
of  the  ceremonies  of  the  centennial  celebration. 

One  of  the  greatest  and  certainly  the  most  enduring  of  the 
state's  observances  of  the  centennial  anniversary  will  be  the 
publication  of  a  centennial  memorial  history,  on  a  scale  not 
before  attempted  by  a  state  of  the  union.  This  history  will  con- 
sist of  the  volume  hereby  presented,  Illinois  in  1818,  which  is 
preliminary  to  the  Centennial  History,  which  will  consist  of  five 
volumes,  namely : 

Volume  I.        Illinois,  Province  and  Territory,   1673-1818 
Volume  II.      The  Frontier  State,  1818-1848 
Volume  III.     The  Era  of  Transition,  1848-1870 
Volume  IV.     The  Industrial  State,  1870-1893 
Volume  V.      The  Modern  Commonwealth,   1893-1918 


These  volumes  are  being  prepared  by  several  editors  espe- 
cially fitted  for  the  work.  The  whole  series  has  been  prepared 
under  the  supervision  of  Professor  C.  W.  Alvord. 

The  first  chairman  of  the  publication  committee  was  Dr.  Otto 
L.  Schmidt.  When  Dr.  Schmidt  was  by  the  governor  appointed 
chairman  of  the  Centennial  Commission,  Professor  E.  B.  Greene 
became  chairman  of  the  committee  on  publications.  It  is  hoped 
that  the  entire  history  may  be  completed  and  published  during  the 
centennial  year. 

Nations  and  states  best  prove  their  devotion  to  their  ideals  by 
the  reverence  they  pay  to  their  history  and  to  the  memory  of 
their  heroes.  The  Centennial  Commission  offers  to  the  people 
of  Illinois  the  centennial  memorial  history  with  the  hope  that 
through  these  volumes  the  memory  of  the  pioneers  of  the  state, 
those  who  founded  it,  and  set  in  motion  its  official  machinery, 
may  be  forever  preserved  from  oblivion. 

JESSIE  PALMER  WEBER 
Secretary  of  the  Commission 


XXI 


EDITORIAL  NOTE 

A  leading  purpose  of  the  Illinois  Centennial  Commission  in 
planning  for  the  coming  celebration  of  the  one  hundredth  anni- 
versary of  the  admission  of  the  state  to  the  union  has  been  to 
mark  the  year  by  some  work  of  permanent  value.  In  accord- 
ance with  this  idea,  the  General  Assembly  has  been  asked  to 
appropriate  the  necessary  funds  for  the  erection  of  a  centennial 
memorial  building,  in  which  provision  may  be  made  for  the  con- 
centration, safe  keeping,  and  orderly  arrangement  of  the  public 
archives  and  other  historical  records.  Of  equal  importance  is 
the  plan  for  the  Centennial  History  to  be  issued  in  five  volumes 
covering  the  history  of  Illinois  from  the  coming  of  the  first  Eu- 
ropeans to  the  present  time.  In  addition  to  these  five  volumes 
of  narrative  history,  it  was  decided  to  publish  the  present  pre- 
liminary volume  giving  a  view  of  the  state  at  the  beginning  of 
the  centennial  period. 

In  all  this  series  of  publications  two  principles  have  been  kept 
in  view.  They  are  intended,  first,  to  tell  the  story  accurately  and 
in  a  scientific  spirit.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  they  do  not  pre- 
tend to  be  "definitive;"  but  they  are  based  on  a  careful  use  not 
only  of  the  familiar  printed  sources,  but  also  of  rare  newspapers 
and  a  large  amount  of  manuscript  material.  In  many  cases,  they 
will  change  materially  the  accepted  views  on  the  subjects  with 
which  they  deal.  For  the  assistance  of  serious  students  who  may 
wish  to  pursue  their  inquiries  further  each  volume  is  provided 
with  footnotes  and  a  bibliography.  A  second  and  not  less  im- 
portant object  agreed  upon  from  the  outset  is  that  of  making 
books  which  will  have  sufficient  human  interest  and  literary 
quality  to  interest  the  intelligent  general  reader.  In  further 
application  of  this  principle,  it  has  been  thought  necessary  to 
limit  the  number  and  length  of  footnotes  much  more  closely 
than  would  be  thought  appropriate  in  a  monograph  primarily 
intended  for  students.  Generally  speaking,  citations  have  been 
given  for  quotations,  but  in  many  other  cases  when  the  sources 
of  information  appeared  to  be  fairly  obvious  to  the  special 
student,  detailed  references  have  been  omitted.  For  much  of 
this  information  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  bibliography. 


xxii 

The  illness  of  the  general  editor,  Professor  Clarence  W.  Al- 
vord,  and  other  circumstances  alluded  to  by  the  author  have  made 
it  necessary  for  the  undersigned,  as  chairman  of  the  Publication 
Committee,  to  assume  a  responsibility  as  to  the  final  form  of  the 
manuscript  and  various  other  matters  involved  in  the  publication 
of  this  volume  which  would  not  otherwise  have  been  required. 
In  the  discharge  of  this  responsibility,  errors  of  judgment  have 
doubtless  been  made  for  which  neither  the  editor  nor  the  author 
should  be  held  accountable.  It  is  hoped,  however,  that  the  final 
result  will  be  in  some  measure  worthy  of  the  great  common- 
wealth whose  history  it  commemorates. 

The  Publication  Committee  is  under  special  obligations  to 
certain  institutions  and  individuals.  The  preparation  of  this  vol- 
ume and  of  those  to  follow  would  not  have  been  possible  without 
the  cooperation  of  the  State  Historical  Library  and  the  Illinois 
Historical  Survey,  a  division  of  the  Graduate  School  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Illinois.  The  Trustees  of  the  State  Historical  Library 
have  accepted  the  centennial  publications  as  a  temporary  substi- 
tute for  their  regular  series  of  Collections  and  the  members  of 
their  editorial  staff  have  devoted  themselves  largely  to  the  serv- 
ice of  the  Centennial  Commission. 

Other  institutions  which  have  responded  generously  to  the 
appeals  of  the  commission  by  furnishing  illustrative  material  and 
in  various  other  ways,  are  the  following :  The  Illinois  State  His- 
torical Library,  The  Chicago  Historical  Society,  The  Missouri 
Historical  Society,  The  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  Harper 
and  Brothers,  The  A.  H.  Clark  Company,  and  The  Bobbs-  Mer- 
rill Company. 

The  commission  is  also  indebted  for  similar  services  to  Mr. 
W.  O.  Converse,  Springfield;  Mr.  Ray  I.  Barry,  Mr.  William 
Wilkinson,  and  Dr.  W.  H.  Smith,  Roodhouse;  Mr.  Thomas  M. 
Cisel,  St.  Francisville ;  Mr.  Herbert  W.  Fay,  De  Kalb;  Mr.  Wal- 
ter Colyer,  Albion ;  Hon.  W.  T.  Norton,  Alton ;  Mr.  W.  E.  Ste- 
vens, Avon;  and  Judge  Frank  Perrin,  Belleville. 

Mrs.   Jessie   Palmer  Weber  of  the  Illinois   State  Historical 


XX111 


Library  and  Miss  Caroline  M.  Mcllvaine  of  the  Chicago  His- 
torical Society  have  been  exceedingly  helpful  in  many  ways  and 
especially  in  the  gathering  of  illustrative  material. 

Miss  Lucille  M.  Allen,  historical  clerk  of  the  Illinois  State  His- 
torical Library,  Miss  Leila  O.  White  of  the  Centennial  Commis- 
sion staff,  and  Miss  Agnes  Wright  of  the  Illinois  Historical  Sur- 
vey have  given  valuable  assistance  at  various  stages  of  the  work. 

To  Dr.  Theodore  C.  Pease  and  Miss  Ruth  E.  Hodsdon,  assist- 
ant editor  of  the  Illinois  Historical  Collections,  the  committee  is 
especially  indebted  for  expert  service  in  seeing  the  volume 
through  the  press. 

I  desire,  finally,  to  place  on  record  my  high  appreciation  of  the 
fine  public  spirit  shown  at  every  stage  of  our  work  by  the  chair- 
man of  the  commission,  Dr.  Otto  L.  Schmidt  of  Chicago. 

EVARTS  BOUTELL  GREENE 
URBANA,  ILLINOIS 
April  9,  1917 


XXV 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

The  state  of  Illinois  is  about  to  celebrate  the  centennial  of  its 
admission  to  the  union.  If  the  observance  of  this  anniversary  is 
to  be  of  any  permanent  value  to  the  commonwealth,  it  should 
furnish  the  occasion  for  a  survey  of  progress  during  the  century 
that  has  passed  in  order  that  future  development  may  be  built 
upon  a  solid  foundation.  The  full  significance  of  one  hundred 
years  of  statehood  cannot  be  understood  without  a  knowledge  of 
the  Illinois  of  1818,  when  the  state  had  its  beginnings.  This 
work  is  an  attempt  to  portray  the  social,  economic,  and  political 
life  of  Illinois  at  the  close  of  the  territorial  period,  and,  in  addi- 
tion, to  tell  the  story  of  the  transition  from  colonial  dependence 
to  the  full  dignity  of  a  state  in  the  union.  It  opens  with  a  de- 
scription of  certain  elements,  then  dominant  in  the  whole  north- 
ern part  of  the  state,  which  have  long  since  disappeared  from  its 
boundaries — the  Indians  and  the  fur  trade.  The  next  chapter 
contains  a  discussion  of  the  system  by  which  the  United  States 
disposed  of  the  soil  to  settlers  and  a  survey  of  the  extent  to  which 
such  disposition  had  been  effected  by  the  close  of  1818.  An  ex- 
amination of  the  distribution  of  population,  with  an  attempt  to 
locate  the  extreme  frontier  of  settlement  in  the  year  of  admis- 
sion, leads  to  a  study  of  the  settlers  themselves — who  and  what 
manner  of  people  they  were  and  whence  they  came.  The  two 
succeeding  chapters  deal  with  economic,  social,  and  intellectual 
conditions,  which  are  depicted  principally  by  means  of  extracts 
from  contemporary  newspapers  and  books  of  travel. 

The  first  half  of  the  book  is  primarily  descriptive;  the  latter 
half,  narrative.  Chapter  7,  which  furnishes  the  transition,  con- 
sists of  a  rapid  sketch  of  political  developments  during  the  ter- 
ritorial period  designed  to  bring  out  the  political  situation  in 
1818.  The  movement  for  admission  is  then  narrated  from  its 
inception  under  the  influence  of  Daniel  Pope  Cook  to  the  passage 
of  the  enabling  act  by  congress.  Chapter  9,  dealing  with  the 
campaign  for  the  election  of  members  of  the  convention,  con- 
tains extensive  quotations  from  newspaper  communications,  and 
finds  its  principal  significance  in  the  slavery  issue.  The  work  of 


XXVI 


the  convention  in  framing  a  constitution  for  the  embryo  state 
is  then  discussed  on  the  basis  of  a  careful  study  of  its  journal 
recently  rescued  from  oblivion.  The  last  chapter  tells  of  the 
establishment  of  the  state  government — the  first  election  and  the 
first  session  of  the  legislature — and  finally  of  the  passage  by  con- 
gress of  the  act  which  made  Illinois  one  of  the  United  States  of 
America. 

When  the  work  on  this  volume  was  begun,  I  was  connected 
with  the  University  of  Illinois.  My  departure  from  the  state 
and  the  assumption  of  obligations  to  the  University  of  Minnesota 
and  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  delayed  and  made  difficult 
the  completion  of  the  work ;  and  that  it  has  been  accomplished  at 
all  is  due  largely  to  the  assistance  which  I  have  received  from 
others.  I  am  especially  indebted  to  Dr.  Wayne  E.  Stevens  and 
Mr.  Ralph  Linton,  who  furnished  most  of  the  material  for  the 
first  chapter ;  to  Dr.  Frances  Relf ,  who  served  as  my  assistant  in 
the  assembling  of  material  and  the  drafting  of  the  other  chap- 
ters; and,  above  all,  to  Dr.  Otto  L.  Schmidt,  the  chairman  of  the 
Illinois  Centennial  Commission,  whose  personal  support  alone 
made  much  of  the  essential  material  available  and  enabled  the 
work  to  go  on  during  the  interval  between  the  two  commissions. 
After  the  manuscript  left  my  hands  it  received  extensive  revision 
at  the  hands  of  the  editor,  Professor  Clarence  W.  Alvord,  and 
his  staff.  Because  of  the  illness  of  Professor  Alvord,  the  work 
of  seeing  the  book  through  the  press  has  been  supervised  by  Pro- 
fessor Evarts  B.  Greene,  with  the  assistance  of  Dr.  Theodore  C. 
Pease.  The  selection  of  the  illustrations  and  the  compilation  of 
the  bibliography  and  index  have  been  handled  by  the  editorial 
staff. 

SOLON  J.  BUCK 

ST.  PAUL,  MINNESOTA 
February,  1917 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


CHAPTER  I 


THE   INDIANS    AND  THE   FUR   TRADE 

One  hundred  years  ago,  the  Illinois  country 
formed  the  far  western  edge  of  the  wave  of 
American  civilization  which  was  slowly  ad- 
vancing across  the  continent  from  the  Atlantic 
seaboard.     Less  than  a  third  of  the  area  in- 
cluded within  the  boundaries  of  the  state  of 
Illinois,  when  admitted  to  the  union  in  1818, 
was   occupied   by   permanent   settlements   of 
white  men.     North  of  an  east  and  west  line 
drawn  through  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  river, 
the   vast   treeless   prairies,   interspersed  with 
wooded  valleys  along  the  streams,  were  still 
the  domain  of  the  Indian  and  the  fur  trader. 
The  irresistible  westward  movement  of  the 
CANADIAN  VOY-      American  people,  seeking  new  homes  in  the 
[Fr9m  Haii,  Forty  wilderness,  had  carried  them  across  the  Alle- 
fmnSisnstJate0H?setoricba3i  ghanies,  down  the  Ohio  valley,  and  into  the 
region    of    mingled    forest    and    prairies    in 
southern   Illinois.     Already  extensive  cessions  of  land  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  state  had  been  secured  from  the  Indians; 
and,  although  they  continued  to  live  and  hunt  in  the  ceded  as 
well  as  the  unceded  districts,  their  elimination  as  a  factor  in 
Illinois  history  was  soon  to  be  completed.     Nevertheless,  no 
account  of  Illinois  in  1818  would  be  complete  without  some  con- 
sideration of  these  remnants  of  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  and 
their  relations  with  the  white  men. 

When  the  French  explorers  first  came  to  the  Mississippi  valley, 
they  found  a  confederacy  of  five  tribes  inhabiting  the  country 
which  was  named,  after  them,  the  Illinois.  During  the  eighteenth 

(1) 


2  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

century,  these  tribes  were  almost  annihilated  by  the  surround- 
ing peoples.  By  1818,  the  Cahokia,  Michigamea,  and  Tamaroa 
had  disappeared  as  distinct  tribes;  the  Kaskaskia,  much  weak- 
ened, lingered  on  in  a  reservation  of  350  acres  left  them  by  the 
whites  near  the  town  of  Kaskaskia;  while  the  remnants  of  the 
Peoria  still  lived  near  the  former  habitat  of  the  confederacy  on 
the  Illinois  river. 

Next  to  the  Kaskaskia,  the  nearest  neighbors  of  the  white 
settlers  in  the  south  were  the  Kickapoo,  who  were  scattered 
along  the  valley  of  the  Sangamon  from  the  headwaters  of  the 
Kaskaskia  river  to  the  Illinois.  They  also  appear  to  have  had 
one  or  two  villages  west  of  the  Illinois.  Farther  north  were 
the  Sauk  and  Fox,  who  although  not  completely  amalgamated, 
mingled  with  each  other  a  great  deal  and  sometimes  lived  in 
the  same  villages.  In  spite  of  the  nominal  cession  of  all  their 
lands  in  Illinois,  the  principal  villages  of  these  tribes  were 
still  located  near  the  mouth  of  Rock  river  with  other  villages 
extending  along  both  banks  of  the  Mississippi  and  into  the 
interior.  Generally  speaking  these  tribes  may  be  said  to  have 
occupied  the  western  part  of  the  triangle  between  the  Missis- 
sippi and  the  Illinois  and  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Rock 
rivers.  The  greater  part  of  the  domain  of  the  Winnebago  was 
in  what  is  now  Wisconsin,  but  a  small  wedge-shaped  portion 
of  it  extended  into  Illinois  between  the  Rock  river  and  the  eastern 
watershed  of  the  Mississippi.  Some  of  the  villages  of  this  tribe 
were  located  on  the  Rock.  The  whole  northeastern  part  of  Illi- 
nois was  occupied  by  the  Potawatomi  with  the  associated  bands 
of  Ottawa  and  Chippewa.  They  had  villages  on  the  Rock,  the 
Fox,  the  Kankakee,  the  Illinois,  and  also  in  the  interior  between 
these  streams  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  Chicago.1 

The  best  available  evidence  as  to  the  population  of  the  Indian 
tribes  living  in  Illinois  in  1818  is  an  estimate  made  by  the  secre- 
tary of  war  in  1815,  but  unfortunately  the  figures  refer  to  the 
tribes  as  a  whole  and  not  merely  to  the  groups  living  in  Illinois. 

1For  condensed  information  about  the  different  tribes,  consult  Hodge, 
Handbook  of  American  Indians.  See  also  American  State  Papers,  Indian 
Affairs,  vol.  2;  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  vols.  n  and  20;  Morse, 
Report  on  Indian  Affairs;  Blair,  Indian  Tribes  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Val- 
ley; Schoolcraft,  Narrative  of  an  Expedition;  Brown,  Western  Gazetteer; 
Michelson  in  American  Anthropologist. 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE          3 

According  to  this  estimate  the  Potawatomi  were  the  most  numer- 
ous, having  forty-eight  hundred  souls.  The  Sauk  numbered 
thirty-two  hundred  and  the  Fox  twelve  hundred,  making  a  total 
of  forty-four  hundred  for  the  two  tribes.  The  Winnebago 
were  credited  with  twenty-four  hundred  souls  but  only  a  few  of 
these  lived  south  of  the  boundary  line.  Nearly  all  of  the  sixteen 
hundred  Kickapoo,  on  the  other  hand,  were  within  the  limits 
of  Illinois.  The  Kaskaskia  tribe  had  been  reduced  to  sixty 
souls  and  the  Peoria  were  not  included  in  the  count  at  all.  In 
each  instance  it  was  estimated  that  about  one- fourth  of  the 
members  of  the  tribe  were  warriors. 

All  these  tribes  belonged  to  the  Algonkin  linguistic  group  with 
the  exception  of  the  Winnebago,  who  were  of  Dakota  stock. 
The  material  culture,  social  organization,  and  religious  beliefs 
of  the  different  tribes  were  fairly  uniform.  They  were  people 
neither  of  the  forest  nor  the  plain,  but  lived  along  the  water 
courses  and  in  the  groves  much  as  did  the  first  white  settlers. 
Their  time  was  divided  about  equally  between  hunting  and  agri- 
cultural life.  "They  leave  their  villages,"  says  Marston,  "as 
soon  as  their  corn,  beans,  etc.,  is  ripe  and  taken  care  of,  and 
their  traders  arrive  and  give  out  their  credits  and  go  to  their 
wintering  grounds ;  it  being  previously  determined  on  in  council 
what  particular  ground  each  party  shall  hunt  on.  The  old  men, 
women,  and  children  embark  in  canoes,  and  the  young  men  go 
by  land  with  their  horses ;  on  their  arrival  they  immediately  com- 
mence their  winter's  hunt,  which  last  about  three  months 

They  return  to  their  villages  in  the  month  of  April  and  after 
putting  their  lodges  in  order,  commence  preparing  the  ground 
to  receive  the  seed."2 

aBlair,  Indian  Tribes,  2:148-151.  The  most  detailed  accounts  of  Illinois 
Indians  in  the  early  nineteenth  century  are  to  be  found  in  two  memoirs 
dealing  with  the  Sauk  and  Fox,  published  in  this  volume.  The  first  is  in 
the  form  of  a  "Letter  to  Reverend  Dr.  Jedidiah  Morse,  by  Major  Morrell 
Marston,  U.S.A.,  commanding  at  Fort  Armstrong,  111.,  November,  1820,"  and 
was  first  published  in  Morse,  Report  on  Indian  Affairs.  The  second  is  "An 
account  of  the  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Sauk  and  Fox  Nations  of 
Indians  Tradition,"  by  Thomas  Forsyth,  Indian  Agent,  January  15,  1827. 
Much  of  the  material  in  the  following  paragraphs  is  drawn  from  these 
memoirs  and  from  appendix  B  of  the  same  volume,  containing  "Notes  on 
Indian  social  Organization,  mental  and  moral  Traits,  religious  Beliefs,  etc." 
The  volume  contains  also  a  very  comprehensive  annotated  bibliography.  See 
also  Hodge,  Handbook  of  American  Indians. 


4  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

The  principal  crop  was  Indian  corn,  of  which  they  often  had 
extensive  fields.  Speaking  of  the  Sauk  and  Fox  near  Rock 
Island,  Major  Marston  says:  "The  number  of  acres  cultivated 
by  that  part  of  the  two  nations  who  reside  at  their  villages  in 
this  vicinity  is  supposed  to  be  upwards  of  three  hundred.  They 
usually  raise  from  seven  to  eight  thousand  bushels  of  corn, 

besides  beans,  pumpkins,  melons,  etc The  labor  of 

agriculture  is  confined  principally  to  the  women,  and  this  is 
done  altogether  with  the  hoe."3  While  corn  formed  the  staple 
of  the  Indians'  diet,  they  made  some  use  of  wild  vegetables  and 
roots.  They  ate  meat  of  many  varieties,  preference  being  given 
to  venison  and  bear's  meat.  They  cared  little  for  fish  but  ate 
it  when  other  food  was  scarce.  "They  most  generally  boil 
everything  into  soup,"  says  Forsyth  in  his  memoir.  "I  never 
knew  them  to  eat  raw  meat,  and  meat  seems  to  disgust  them 

when  it  is  not  done  thoroughly The  old  women  set 

the  kettle  a  boiling  in  the  night,  and  about  day  break  all  eat 
whatever  they  have  got,  they  eat  in  the  course  of  the  day  as 
often  as  they  are  hungry,  the  kettle  is  on  the  fire  constantly 
suspended  from  the  roof  of  the  lodge,  every  one  has  his  wooden 
dish  or  bowl  and  wooden  spoon  or  as  they  call  it  Me-quen  which 
they  carry  along  with  them  when  they  are  invited  to  feast."* 

The  ordinary  garments  of  the  Indian  men  were  a  shirt  reach- 
ing almost  to  the  knees,  a  breechclout,  and  leggings  which  came 
up  to  the  thigh  and  were  fastened  to  the  belt  on  either  side.  In 
earliest  times  all  their  clothing  was  made  of  leather,  but  by  1818 
this  material  had  been  generally  replaced  by  trade  cloth.  The 
shirt  and  leggings  were  often  dyed  a  deep  blue  or  black,  while 
the  breechclout  was  usually  of  red  cloth;  all  were  more  or  less 
elaborately  decorated  with  bead  and  quill  work.  The  women 
wore  a  two-piece  garment,  short  leggings  reaching  to  the  knees, 
and  moccasins;  they  also  employed  the  customary  Indian  orna- 
mentation of  quills  and  beads.  Both  sexes  wore  the  robe,  and 
later  the  trade  blanket.  The  men  painted  their  faces  in  various 
ways,  while  the  women  painted  very  little  or  not  at  all.  Except 
when  on  the  warpath  the  men  of  most  of  the  tribes  let  their  hair 

*Blair,  Indian  Tribes,  2:151. 
'Ibid.,  2 1229. 


WA-BAUN-SEE,  POTTAWATOMI  CHIEF 

[From  the  Lewis  Portfolio,  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society! 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE          5 

grow  long,  wearing  the  scalp  lock  braided  and  a  band  of  otter 
skin  or  a  woven  sash  bound  around  the  brows.  The  women 
ordinarily  wore  their  hair  in  a  single  braid  down  the  back. 

The  principal  manufacturing  operations  of  these  tribes  were 
tanning,  weaving,  and  the  making  of  pottery;  although  the  last 
named  industry  had  practically  been  given  up  by  1818.  The 
central  Algonkin  were  not  familiar  with  the  use  of  the  loom, 
but  they  twisted  a  twine  from  the  inner  bark  of  the  linden,  and 
with  this  wove  excellent  bags  of  various  sorts,  which  they  used 
for  a  great  variety  of  purposes.  These  were  decorated  by  weav- 
ing in  geometric  designs  and  conventional  representations  of 
animals.  They  also  made  reed  mats  sewed  with  twine,  which 
were  used  as  covering  for  the  floors,  and  as  roofing  for  the 
winter  houses.  The  pottery  was  of  a  rather  inferior  sort, 
burned  in  an  open  fire,  or  simply  sundried,  and  decorated  with  a 
few  incised  lines.  With  the  coming  of  the  whites,  this  native 
ware  was  rapidly  replaced  by  the  trade  kettle. 

All  the  tribes  living  in  Illinois  used  two  types  of  houses,  one 
for  summer,  the  other  for  winter.  The  summer  houses  as 
described  by  Forsyth,  were  "built  in  the  form  of  an  oblong,  a 
bench  on  each  of  the  long  sides  about  three  feet  high  and  four 
feet  wide,  parallel  to  each  other,  a  door  at  each  end,  and  a 
passage  thro  the  center  of  about  six  feet  wide,  some  of  those 
huts  are  fifty  or  sixty  feet  long  and  capable  of  lodging  fifty  or 
sixty  persons.  Their  winter  lodges  are  made  by  driving  long 
poles  in  the  ground  in  two  rows  nearly  at  equal  distances  from 
each  other,  bending  the  tops  so  as  to  overlap  each  other,  then 
covering  them  with  mats  made  of  what  they  call  puc-wy  a  kind 
of  rushes  or  flags,  a  Bearskin  generally  serves  for  a  door,  which 
is  suspended  at  the  top  and  hangs  down,  when  finished  it  is  not 
unlike  an  oven  with  the  fire  in  the  center  and  the  smoke  omits 
thro  the  top."5 

The  basis  of  the  social  organization  and  government  of  these 
Indians  was  the  clan,  all  the  tribes  being  divided  into  a  large 
number  of  gentes  or  groups  based  on  descent  in  the  male  line 
and  strictly  exogamous.  Each  clan  took  its  name  from  some 

"Blair,  Indian  Tribes,  2  :22J. 


6  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

special  animal  or  thing  to  which  the  members  thought  them- 
selves related.  Thus  the  gentes  of  the  Kickapoo  were  Water, 
Bear,  Elk,  Bald  Eagle,  Tree,  Berry,  Fox,  Buffalo,  Man,  Turkey, 
and  Thunder.  The  heads  of  these  clans  acted  as  civil  chiefs, 
although  the  braves  or  principal  men  had  considerable  influence 
in  matters  of  war  and  peace.  The  authority  of  the  chiefs  was 
hereditary,  descending  to  the  oldest  male  of  the  family,  but  it 
was  not  by  any  means  absolute.  So  loose  was  the  organization 
of  a  tribe  that  the  office  of  chief  entailed  more  trouble  than 
advantage  and  was  sometimes  refused.  Indeed  the  power  of 
an  individual  chief  depended  primarily  on  his  personal  influence 
rather  than  on  the  prestige  of  his  office.  The  function  of  the 
council  appears  to  have  been  not  so  much  judicial  as  administra- 
tive— the  determination  of  matters  of  tribal  policy — and  in  its 
deliberations  substantial  unanimity  was  necessary  for  a  decision. 
"There  is  no  such  thing,"  says  Forsyth,  "as  a  summary  mode 
of  coercing  the  payment  of  debts,  all  contracts  are  made  on 
honor,  for  redress  of  civil  injuries  an  appeal  is  made  to  the  old 
people  of  both  parties  and  their  determination  is  generally 
acceded  to."6  Atonement  for  murder  was  made  in  the  manner 
customary  among  primitive  people,  usually  by  payments  or 
presents  to  the  relatives  of  the  dead.  Even  war  was  a  matter 
of  individual  initiative  rather  than  of  tribal  concern.  Any  indi- 
vidual might  become  a  war  chief  for  the  time  being,  if  he  had 
sufficient  influence  to  induce  a  party  of  warriors  to  follow  him. 

Most  of  the  tribes  were  also  divided,  without  regard  to  clans, 
into  two  great  phratries,  the  Blacks  and  the  Whites.  This  divi- 
sion was  applied  to  both  sexes,  and  the  phratry  was  fixed  at  the 
time  of  birth.  Usually  the  first  child  of  a  Black  was  a  White, 
the  second  a  Black,  and  so  on,  but  there  was  no  fixed  rule.  The 
explanation  given  by  the  Indians  for  this  division  was  that  it 
tended  to  promote  emulation  within  the  tribe.  The  two  colors 
always  played  against  each  other  in  athletic  games  and  in 
gambling.  They  seem  to  have  had  some  ceremonial  significance 
also,  for  at  clan  feasts  the  Whites  took  the  south  and  the  Blacks 

'Blair,  Indian  Tribes,  2:186. 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE          7 

the  north  side  of  the  lodge;  and  certain  offices  were  definitely 
assigned  to  each. 

The  religion  of  the  Algonkin  Indians  was  essentially  a  nature 
worship,  pure  and  simple.  An  object  around  which  associations 
had  clustered  would  become  the  recipient  of  adoration,  and  either 
the  object  itself  or  an  interpreted  manifestation  of  the  object 
would  be  looked  upon  as  a  manitou  capable  of  bringing  pleasure 
or  inflicting  pain.  In  everyday  life  the  elaborate  ritual  of  the 
Indians'  religion  centered  about  the  medicine  bundle, — a  collec- 
tion of  charms,  amulets,  or  fetishes  sometimes  thought  to  have 
a  consciousness  of  its  own  and  to  enjoy  offerings.  Some  of 
these  bundles  were  used  in  clan  ceremonies  connected  with  the 
naming  of  children,  others  were  thought  to  give  magical  protec- 
tion and  help  in  battle,  while  still  others  were  supposed  to  aid 
their  owners  in  various  affairs  of  life,  such  as  hunting,  love, 
friendship,  sickness,  athletic  sports,  gambling,  and  witchcraft. 
Frequently  the  same  bundle  would  be  used  for  several  purposes, 
but  there  was  always  an  elaborate  ritual  in  connection  with  it. 

In  addition  to  the  cult  of  the  medicine  bundles,  the  Indians 
of  Illinois  in  common  with  other  central  Algonkin  had  the 
society  of  the  Midewin,  or  grand  medicine  lodge.  This  was  a 
secret  organization,  varying  in  its  minor  details  with  the  dif- 
ferent tribes,  but  having  certain  fundamental  features  common 
to  all.  Admission  was  on  the  recommendation  of  some  member, 
or  in  the  place  of  some  member  who  had  died.  Membership 
was  open  to  both  men  and  women,  and  in  some  tribes  even  chil- 
dren were  taken  to  succeed  deceased  members.  The  applicant 
had  to  pay  a  certain  fixed  sum  for  admission,  and  at  the  same 
time  buy  from  some  member  a  certain  number  of  formulae  and 
charms.  Among  several  of  the  tribes  the  society  was  divided 
into  four  degrees,  admission  to  each  one  of  which  had  to  be 
bought.  The  initiation  seems  to  have  been  little  more  than  a 
notification  to  the  public  that  the  initiate  was  qualified  to  practice 
magic,  the  scope  of  his  power  becoming  greater  with  each  suc- 
ceeding degree.  The  badge  of  the  order  was  a  medicine  pouch, 
usually  made  of  the  skin  of  an  otter  tanned  whole,  and  always 
containing  the  megus, — a  small  white  shell  which  was  supposed 


8  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

to  be  the  carrier  of  the  magic  power.  Usually  there  were  also 
other  magicians  and  witches,  not  members  of  the  medicine  lodge, 
whose  powers  were  supposed  to  result  from  some  special  dispen- 
sation of  the  manitous. 

It  is  evident  that  the  Indians  had  nothing  that  could  be  called 
a  formal  civil  government.  Most  affairs  were  left  to  individual 
initiative;  the  love  of  freedom  was  one  of  the  Indians'  chief 
characteristics;  and  they  suffered  their  personal  liberty  to  be 
only  slightly  limited  even  by  the  authority  of  the  chiefs  and 
sachems.  This  lack  of  political  organization  among  the  Indians 
inevitably  caused  many  complications  in  dealing  with  the  whites, 
complications  which  were  increased  by  the  fact  that  the  whites 
with  whom  the  Indians  first  came  in  contact  were  generally  the 
most  lawless  and  unruly  representatives  of  their  race. 

The  fur  traders,  who  were  always  the  first  to  penetrate  the 
Indian  forests,  were  usually  hardy  adventurers  whose  one  con- 
cern was  to  secure  as  large  a  profit  as  they  could  from  their 
traffic  with  the  savages.  The  Illinois  country  had  long  been  a 
fertile  field  for  these  rovers,  and  the  problem  of  their  control 
had  been  one  of  the  most  serious  which  had  been  handed  down 
first  by  the  French  to  the  British,  and  then  by  the  British  to  the 
Americans.  The  advent  of  the  pioneer  farmer,  however,  was 
an  even  more  prolific  source  of  friction  than  the  irregularities 
of  the  fur  traders,  for  the  Indians  regarded  with  the  most 
jealous  disfavor  the  permanent  clearance  and  settlement  of  the 
hunting  grounds  over  which  their  ancestors  had  roamed  in 
perfect  freedom.  The  whites,  on  the  other  hand,  regarded  the 
land  as  theirs  by  a  sort  of  racial  right  and  considered  that  they 
were  justified  in  using  every  means  to  wrest  it  from  the  abo- 
rigines. 

In  1818,  the  Indians  in  Illinois  retained  but  little  of  the  inde- 
pendence and  self-sufficiency  of  their  forefathers.  Their  agri- 
culture was  of  a  rude  and  primitive  sort,  and  they  had  come  to 
rely  upon  the  white  trader  for  a  large  number  of  articles  which, 
once  unknown,  had  become  necessities  of  life;  and  these  they 
secured  in  exchange  for  the  returns  of  their  hunts.  Their 
resources  not  having  kept  pace  with  their  growing  wants,  their 


KEE-O-KucK,  OR  THE  WATCHING  Fox,  CHIEF  OF  THE  SAUK  TRIBE  AND 
SUCCESSOR  TO  BLACK  HAWK 

Painted  by  J.  O.  Lewis  at  the  great  treaty  of  Prairie  du  Chien,  1825 
(From  the  Lewis  Portfolio,  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society) 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE          9 

condition  was  a  rather  wretched  one ;  and  they  were  regarded  by 
the  government  as  wards  to  be  cared  for  as  well  as  possible 
enemies  to  be  feared.  Governor  Cass  of  Michigan  territory, 
speaking  of  the  Indians  in  1816,  said:  "Since  the  establishment 
of  the  National  Government  provisions  have  always  been 
gratuitously  distributed  to  them,  and  more  recently  goods  to  a 
considerable  [amount]  have  been  given.  Without  these  annual 
gratuities,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  they  could  support  and 
clothe  themselves.  And  even  with  all  this  assistance  their  con- 
dition is  wretched,  their  wants  increasing  their  feelings  dispond- 
ing  and  their  prospects  dreary."7 

While  the  Indians  of  Illinois  and  the  adjoining  frontier  were 
comparatively  peaceful  and  quiet  in  1818,  there  was  always  a  dan- 
ger that  they  might  take  up  the  hatchet  and  wage  war  against  the 
whites,  and  this  ever-present  danger  was  never  lost  sight  of  by  the 
United  States  government.  A  complicating  factor  in  the  situa- 
tion was  the  influence  which  the  British  still  exerted  over  the 
tribes  of  Illinois  and  the  great  lakes  region  as  late  as  1818.  The 
great  majority  of  these  tribes  had  sided  with  the  British  in  the 
war  of  1812 ;  and,  after  peace  was  concluded  between  Great  Brit- 
ain and  the  United  States,  it  was  necessary  to  conclude  treaties 
with  the  Indians  likewise.  Thomas  Forsyth  was  sent  as  agent  to 
invite  various  tribes,  including  the  Chippewa,  Menominee, 
Kickapoo,  Potawatomi,  and  Sauk  and  Fox,  to  send  deputations 
to  meet  with  Governor  Clark  of  Missouri  territory,  Governor 
Ninian  Edwards  of  Illinois  territory,  and  Auguste  Chouteau, 
who  had  been  appointed  commissioners  by  the  president  to  con- 
clude treaties  of  peace  and  amity.8  In  the  course  of  time,  formal 
peace  was  established  between  the  United  States  and  the  various 
tribes  which  had  taken  up  the  hatchet  on  the  British  side  in  the 
war,  but  the  problem  of  British  influence  still  remained.  The 
proposal  of  the  United  States  government  after  the  close  of  the 
war  to  establish  military  posts  at  Chicago,  Green  Bay,  and  Prai- 
rie du  Chien  aroused  considerable  opposition  among  the  Indians ; 
in  this  they  had  a  certain  degree  of  moral  support  from  the 

TIndian  Office  Papers,  Michigan  Letter  Book,  I  (1814-1817)   -.362. 
8Draper  manuscripts,  2M.  24,  26,  27,  28,  and  29.. 


10  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

British,  who  naturally  were  not  anxious  to  see  the  military  forces 
of  their  late  enemy  occupy  the  frontier  region  resorted  to  by  the 
British  traders.8 

During  the  period  following  the  war,  the  British  endeavored 
to  preserve  the  good  will  of  the  Indians  of  the  northwest  by  a 
lavish  distribution  of  presents  at  Drummond's  Island,  not  far 
from  Mackinac,  and  at  Maiden,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Detroit 
river.  In  the  summer  of  1817,  Major  Puthuff,  agent  at  Mack- 
inac, reported  that  a  considerable  band  of  Sauk  and  Fox  from 
the  lower  Mississippi,  of  Winnebago  from  the  Wisconsin  river 
and  Prairie  du  Chien,  as  well  as  some  Potawatomi  and  other 
tribes  from  the  Illinois,  had  visited  Mackinac  and  Drummond's 
Island  that  season.  At  the  latter  post,  the  British  had  distributed 
presents,  and  it  was  reported  that  large  quantities  of  arms  and 
ammunition  had  been  given  out.  Two  years  later,  Governor 
Cass  said  in  a  letter  to  Calhoun,  then  secretary  of  war:  "The 
British  Indian  headquarters  are  at  Maiden  at  the  mouth  of  this 
River,  and  to  that  place  the  Indians  east  of  Lake  Michigan, 
many  west  of  that  Lake,  and  those  upon  the  Wabash  &  Miami 
Rivers  and  their  tributary  streams  make  an  annual  journey  to 
receive  the  presents,  which  are  distributed  to  them  and  to  confer 
as  they  express  it,  with  their  British  father."10  Needless  to 
say,  the  practice  was  most  objectionable  to  the  United  States, 
and  in  1819,  Calhoun  gave  Governor  Cass  instructions  to  prevent 
any  Indians  living  within  the  United  States  from  passing  into 
Canada,  save  as  individuals.  Still,  as  late  as  1820,  certain  of 
the  Sauk  and  Fox  living  in  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Armstrong  on 
Rock  Island  had  British  medals  in  their  possession  and  were 
displaying  British  flags  considerably  larger  than  the  American 
army  standards. 

^Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  19 :43O.  A  smouldering  hostility  to- 
ward the  Americans  persisted  among  certain  Indian  tribes  for  some  little 
time  after  the  war.  When  the  Illinois  fur  brigade  arrived  in  the  vicinity  of 
Peoria  lake  in  1818,  the  trader  in  charge  of  the  expedition  informed  the 
Indians  that  Gurdon  Hubbard,  a  young  American  apprentice  just  arrived 
in  the  Indian  country,  was  his  adopted  son  from  Montreal.  One  young 
brave  insisted  that  Hubbard  was  an  American  and  showed  him  a  number  of 
scalps,  which  he  claimed  were  those  of  his  countrymen.  Hubbard,  Autobi- 
ography, 48. 

"Indian  Office  Papers,  Michigan  Letter  Book,  3  (1818-1822)    :8o. 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE  11 

The  presence  of  British  traders  among  the  Indians  of  the 
northwest  was  also  a  source  of  considerable  uneasiness  to  the 
Americans.  In  1818,  many  of  the  private  traders  in  Illinois, 
as  well  as  throughout  the  entire  great  lakes  region,  were  British 
in  their  political  allegiance  and  in  their  sympathies;  many  of 
them  had  taken  an  active  part  against  the  Americans  in  the  war 
of  1812.  The  correspondence  of  the  time  is  filled  with  com- 
plaints concerning  the  evil  influence  of  these  British  traders. 
Jacob  Varnum,  who  had  charge  of  the  government  trading 
factory  at  Chicago,  in  1818,  said:  "The  indiscriminate  admission 
of  British  subjects  to  trade  with  the  Indians,  is  a  matter  of 
pretty  general  complaint,  throughout  this  section  of  the  country. 
There  are  five  establishments  now  within  the  limits  of  this 
agency,  headed  by  British  subjects."11  Governor  Cass  likewise 
had  little  love  for  these  traders.  "They  systematically  seize 
every  opportunity  of  poisoning  the  minds  of  the  Indians,"  he 
wrote.  "There  is  no  doubt  but  they  report  every  occurence  of 
any  importance  to  their  Indian  Department,  and  the  Indians  are 
taught  to  consider  our  Government  as  their  enemies  and  the 
British  as  their  friends."12  It  is  very  probable  that  American 
army  officers  and  Indian  agents  somewhat  overestimated  the 
danger  to  be  anticipated  from  the  influence  of  British  agents 
and  traders  with  the  savages.  At  the  same  time,  in  the  light 
of  experience,  and  in  view  of  the  actual  situation  of  affairs  on 
the  frontier,  the  government  of  the  United  States  was  certainly 
justified  in  exercising  the  greatest  diligence  in  its  efforts  to  check 
all  intercourse  between  the  Indians  and  the  British. 

The  United  States  government  had,  then,  three  ends  in  view 
in  its  administration  of  Indian  affairs  upon  the  northwestern 
frontier  during  this  period;  to  preserve  peace  between  the  red 
man  and  the  white  settler;  to  destroy  British  influence  and  to 
render  the  Indians  dependent  upon  the  United  States;  and, 
lastly,  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  savages  or,  if  possible,  to 

"Morse,  Report  on  Indian  Affairs,  46.  In  Nttes*  Weekly  Register,  8:263 
is  printed  a  list  of  names  of  traders  who  sided  with  the  British  in  the  war 
of  1812.  The  correspondence  in  which  the  list  occurs  is  dated  April  29,  1815. 
There  are  included  the  names  of  three  traders  who  formerly  resided  at 
Peoria;  "Mitchell"  La  Croix,  Louis  Buisson,  and  Louis  Bennett 

"Indian  Office  Papers,  Michigan  Letter  Book,  I  (1814-1817)    1365. 


12  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

civilize  them.  There  was  a  rather  widely  spread  feeling  that 
the  whites  owed  a  certain  moral  obligation  to  the  Indians  on 
account  of  the  occupation  of  so  goodly  a  portion  of  their  best 
hunting  grounds.  The  government  sought  to  carry  out  its 
policy  by  means  of  three  separate  and  distinct  agencies;  the 
military  posts  upon  the  frontier,  the  Indian  department,  and  the 
system  of  government  fur  trading  factories. 

The  principal  military  establishments  upon  the  northwestern 
frontier  in  1818  were  at  Detroit,  Mackinac,  Fort  Wayne,  Green 
Bay,  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  Chicago.  Fort  Dearborn,  it  will  be 
remembered,  was  destroyed  during  the  war  of  1812,  but  it  was 
reestablished  in  1816.  There  were  three  other  posts  in  Illinois 
in  1818,  besides  the  one  at  Chicago;  Fort  Armstrong,  on  Rock 
Island;  Fort  Edwards,  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Des  Moines 
river;  and  Fort  Clark,  on  the  Illinois  river  near  the  outlet  of 
Peoria  lake.  The  last-named  post  was  abandoned,  however,  in 
the  same  year.  These  posts  were  located  at  strategic  points 
upon  the  water  communications  of  the  northwest  and  were 
designed  to  overawe  the  Indian  tribes  in  their  vicinity  and  to 
act  as  a  check  upon  foreign  interference.  In  addition,  they  gave 
aid  and  protection  to  the  Indian  department  and  to  the  govern- 
ment trading  factories. 

The  Indian  department,  under  the  supervision  and  direction 
of  the  United  States  department  of  war,  had  its  agencies  at 
Mackinac,  Green  Bay,  Prairie  du  Chien,  Chicago,  Vincennes, 
Fort  Wayne,  and  Piqua.  There  was  a  special  agent  for  the 
Illinois  territory,  with  headquarters  at  Peoria,  besides  scattered 
sub-agents.  Before  Illinois  was  admitted  into  the  union,  Gover- 
nor Edwards  was  ex  officio  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs  in 
the  greater  part  of  the  territory  and  as  such  directed  the  adminis- 
tration of  affairs  at  the  different  agencies  within  his  jurisdic- 
tion. Thus  the  agent  for  Illinois  territory,  as  well  as  the  one 
stationed  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  was  prior  to  1818  responsible  to 
Governor  Edwards.  The  agents  at  Green  Bay  and  Chicago, 
however,  although  within  Illinois  territory,  were  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Governor  Cass  of  Michigan  territory.  The  reason  for 
this  arrangement  was  that  Chicago  and  Green  Bay  were  more 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE  13 

easily  accessible  from  Detroit  by  way  of  the  lakes  than  from 
Kaskaskia.  After  Illinois  became  a  state,  the  agency  at  Prairie 
du  Chien  and  that  for  Illinois  territory  became  independent  estab- 
lishments, responsible  directly  to  the  war  department;  Chicago 
and  Green  Bay  remained  under  the  supervision  of  Governor 
Cass.13  In  1818  Charles  Jouett  was  in  charge  of  Indian  affairs 
at  Chicago,  while  Richard  Graham  acted  as  "agent  for  Illinois 
Territory;"  the  two  sub-agents  within  the  limits  of  Illinois  were 
Pierre  Menard  and  Maurice  Blondeau. 

The  Indian  agents  and  sub-agents  were  entrusted  with  the 
duty  of  supervising  the  political  relations  between  the  various 
tribes  and  the  United  States.  They  discharged  treaty  obliga- 
tions on  behalf  of  the  United  States  government,  and  acted  as 
the  medium  of  communication  with  the  Indians.  They  granted 
licenses  for  the  Indian  trade  and  generally  supervised  its  conduct. 
One  of  the  most  important  of  the  duties  regularly  performed 
was  the  payment  of  the  annuities  due  the  Indians.  These  were 
usually  paid  in  goods  and  were  delivered  in  accordance  with 
treaty  stipulations,  most  often  as  the  price  agreed  upon  for  the 
cession  of  lands  by  the  Indians.  The  amounts  paid  over  in  this 
way,  however,  were  very  modest.  The  annuity  due  the  Kas- 
kaskia in  1818  was  one  thousand  dollars,  while  an  equal  amount 
was  paid  the  Ottawa,  Chippewa,  and  Potawatomi  residing  upon 
the  Illinois  river.  The  Kickapoo  received  only  nine  hundred 
dollars. 

Another  important  service  rendered  by  the  Indian  agents  was 
the  distribution  of  presents,  which  was  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance as  a  means  of  securing  the  attachment  of  the  savages. 
The  lavish  distribution  of  presents  by  the  British  agents  at 
Maiden  and  at  Drummond's  Island  dictated  a  similar  policy  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States,  for  the  Indians  usually  bestowed 
their  favor  upon  the  party  which  bid  highest  for  it.  The  an- 
nuities were  divided  among  the  different  villages  of  the  various 
tribes  in  proportion  to  their  numbers,  while  the  presents  were 
usually  bestowed  upon  the  principal  chiefs  and  other  influential 
individuals.  Those  familiar  with  the  state  of  affairs  upon  the 

"Indian  Office  Papers,  Letter  Book,  D  (1817-1820)    1326  et  seq. 


14  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

frontier  were  almost  unanimous  in  advocating  a  liberal  distribu- 
tion of  presents  as  the  most  effective  and  the  cheapest  means  of 
controlling  the  savages.  Governor  Edwards  in  1816  recom- 
mended that  presents  be  distributed  to  the  Indians  of  the  Illinois 
river  and  vicinity  with  a  free  hand,  for  a  few  years  at  least; 
"nothing  less,"  he  said,  "can  wean  them  from  British  influence 
to  which  they  more  than  any  other  Indians  in  those  territories 
have  long  been  devoted."14  The  giving  of  presents  may  also  be 
regarded  as  the  price  of  peace  along  the  frontiers,  and  of  free- 
dom from  petty  annoyance,  such  as  cattle  and  horsethieving. 
A  threat  to  withhold  presents  was  a  much  more  effective  argu- 
ment with  the  Indians  than  any  appeal  to  their  higher  sensibil- 
ities. It  was  also  considered  necessary  to  distribute  presents 
in  order  to  give  dignity  and  prestige  to  the  agent  himself.  In- 
voices sent  out  by  Thomas  L.  McKenney,  superintendent  of  the 
Indian  trade,  in  1818,  indicate  that  merchandise  to  the  value  of 
two  thousand  dollars  was  destined  for  Kaskaskia  for  distribution 
among  the  Indians,  while  equal  amounts  were  sent  to  Peoria  and 
Prairie  du  Chien. 

Besides  the  presents  which  were  distributed  among  the  Indians 
each  year,  it  was  also  customary  to  feed  those  who  visited  the 
various  posts  from  time  to  time  for  business  or  other  purposes. 
It  took  nearly  as  much  food  to  supply  the  visiting  savages  as 
the  regular  garrisons.  Governor  Cass  described  the  situation  in 
the  following  words:  "A  long  established  custom,  a  thousand 
wants  real  or  imaginary,  and  the  restlessness  and  impatience  of 
their  mode  of  life  send  them  in  upon  us.  They  come  with  trifling 
articles  to  barter,  they  come  to  get  their  arms  repaired,  to  get 
their  farming  utensils,  to  enquire  about  their  annuities,  to  com- 
plain of  injuries  from  some  of  our  Citizens  and  messages  of 
every  kind  from  their  chiefs.  It  would  [be]  equally  trouble- 
some for  me  to  enumerate  and  for  you  to  read  the  various 
causes  which  influence  them  to  make  these  visits.  They  gener- 
ally bring  with  them  their  women  &  Children,  and  they  are  so 

"Letter  of  Ninian  Edwards,  September  24,  1816,  in  Chicago  Historical 
Society  manuscripts. 


NABU-NAA-KEE-SHICK,  OR  THE  ONE  HALF  OF  THE  SKY,  A  CHIPPEWA  CHTEF 

Painted  at  the  Treaty  of  Fond  du  Lac  by  J.  O.  Lewis 
[From  the  Lewis  Portfolio,  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE  15 

importunate  in  their  applications,  and  their  necessities  so  obvi- 
ous, that  an  Agent  must  frequently  yield  to  them."15 

The  agents  of  the  Indian  department  also  performed  a  num- 
ber of  small  services,  often  trifling  in  themselves,  but  important 
for  the  maintenance  of  friendly  relations.  They  received  all 
visiting  Indians,  endeavored  to  secure  such  information  from 
them  as  might  be  of  value  to  the  United  States;  attempted  to 
prevent  the  introduction  of  liquor  into  the  Indian  country,  and 
in  fact  did  anything  which  might  operate  to  secure  the  good  will 
or  promote  the  welfare  of  the  Indians.  Blacksmiths  were  some- 
times maintained  at  the  agencies  to  repair  the  tools  and  weapons 
which  the  savages  brought  in  from  their  villages  and  hunting 
grounds.  In  1820,  Pierre  Menard,  sub-agent  at  Kaskaskia,  ex- 
pended thirteen  dollars  "for  ferriage  of  the  Delaware  chief  and 
his  party  over  the  Mississippi;"  nineteen  dollars  and  fifty  cents 
"for  supper  and  breakfast  furnished  thirteen  Indians,  corn  and 
hay  for  their  horses;"  and  twenty-three  dollars  "for  four  hun- 
dred pounds  of  beef,  and  making  a  coffin  for  a  Delaware  Indian 
who  was  accidentally  killed."10  In  the  performance  of  their 
various  duties  the  agents  usually  had  the  assistance  of  inter- 
preters, whose  knowledge  of  the  languages  and  intimate  associa- 
tions with  the  Indians  enabled  them  to  secure  information  of 
value  to  the  department. 

One  of  the  most  important  functions  of  the  Indian  agents  was 
the  supervision  of  the  fur  trade  and  the  enforcement  of  such 
regulations  as  the  president  or  congress  might  prescribe  from 
time  to  time.  In  1816,  congress  passed  an  act  excluding  for- 
eigners from  engaging  in  the  fur  trade  unless  granted  special 
permission  by  authority  of  the  president.  The  power  of  deter- 
mining who  were  to  receive  licenses  was  delegated  by  the  presi- 
dent to  the  Indian  agents,  inasmuch  as  they  were  in  a  better 
position  to  decide  what  foreigners  might  with  propriety  be 
allowed  to  trade  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States.  Since 

"Indian  Oince  Papers,  Michigan  Letter  Book,  3  (1818-1822)    -.105. 

"American  State  Papers,  Indian  Affairs,  2 1302. 


16  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

the  American  capital  employed  in  the  industry  was  not  suffi- 
cient to  supply  the  needs  of  the  Indians,  it  was  not  thought  wise 
at  this  time  to  exclude  foreigners  entirely,  but  the  agents  were 
allowed  to  grant  passes  only  "under  such  regulations  as  shall 
subject  them  [the  traders]  to  a  strict  observance  of  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  upon  this  subject;  secure  their  exertions  in 
maintaining  peace  between  the  Indian  tribes,  and  this  govern- 
ment, and  between  themselves;  and  present  additional  induce- 
ments to  respect  the  laws  against  smuggling."17  More  strin- 
gent regulations  were  prescribed  in  1818,  when  the  president  gave 
orders  that  no  foreigners  were  to  be  licensed  to  trade  with  the 
Indians,  nor  were  American  traders  to  be  allowed  to  take  with 
them  foreign  engages.  But  as  it  was  almost  impossible  for 
American  traders  to  dispense  with  the  services  of  the  French- 
Canadian  voyageurs  and  interpreters,  there  was  later  a  slight 
relaxation  from  this  strict  ruling,  and  permission  was  given  to 
employ  foreign  engages  under  certain  conditions,  one  of  which 
was  that  none  should  be  employed  who  were  obnoxious  to  Amer- 
ican citizens  by  reason  of  their  conduct  during  the  war  of  1812. 
The  various  agents  did  not  hesitate  to  refuse  licenses  to  foreign- 
ers on  occasion.  In  1816,  Charles  Jouett,  agent  at  Chicago, 
announced  that  he  had  refused  to  one  Beauveaux  a  license  to 
trade  because  of  "his  having  held  up  to  odium  those  Indians 
who  are  remarkable  for  their  attachment  to  the  American  Gov- 
ernment."18 In  the  following  year,  Governor  Ninian  Edwards, 
believing  that  the  hostility  of  the  Winnebago  and  other  Indians 
living  along  the  Mississippi  was  due  to  the  influence  of  British 
traders,  declared  his  intention  of  refusing  all  British  traders  per- 
mission to  enter  Illinois  territory.  The  regulations  looking  to 
the  exclusion  of  foreigners,  however,  do  not  appear  to  have  been 
very  effective.  Licenses  were  taken  out  in  the  names  of  Amer- 
ican citizens,  but  often  as  soon  as  the  outfit  in  question  entered 
the  Indian  country,  a  foreign  trader  who  was  nominally  an 
engage  in  the  expedition  took  charge  and  directed  the  commerce 
with  the  Indians. 

"Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  19:406. 

"Indian  Office  Papers,  Michigan  Letter  Book,  i  (1814-1817)    -.395. 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE  17 

As  a  means  of  destroying  the  influence  of  the  private  traders, 
particularly  the  British,  and  of  attaching  the  Indians  to  the  Amer- 
ican government,  the  United  States  placed  great  confidence  in 
a  system  of  government  trading  factories  which  had  its  origin 
as  far  back  as  1795.  These  factories  were  not  intended  to  be 
money-making  enterprises  but  were  designed  rather  to  supple- 
ment the  Indian  department  in  the  administration  of  the  frontier. 
Certain  provisions  of  an  act  of  1811,  which  was  still  in  force  in 
1818,  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  general  nature  of  the  plan.  The 
president  was  given  authority  to  establish  factories  at  such  places 
on  the  frontier  as  he  might  deem  most  convenient  and  to  appoint 
a  superintendent  of  Indian  trade  who  should  manage  the  busi- 
ness on  behalf  of  the  government.  The  agents  appointed  to  take 
charge  of  the  various  factories  were  to  be  responsible  to  the 
superintendent  and  render  their  accounts  to  him.  The  prices 
of  the  goods  employed  in  the  trade  were  to  be  regulated  in  such 
a  manner  that  the  original  capital  stock  furnished  by  the  United 
States  should  not  be  diminished,  no  effort  being  made  to  secure 
a  profit  in  the  conduct  of  the  business.  The  furs,  skins,  and 
other  articles  obtained  from  the  Indians  in  the  course  of  trade 
were  to  be  sold  at  public  auction  under  the  direction  of  the  presi- 
dent at  such  places  as  should  be  deemed  most  advantageous.19 

In  1818,  the  United  States  maintained  four  factories  in  the 
northwest,  at  Chicago,  Green  Bay,  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  Fort 
Edwards.  Before  the  war  of  1812,  there  had  been  government 
trading  houses  at  Mackinac,  Chicago,  Fort  Madison,  and  San- 
dusky;  but  during  the  course  of  hostilities  all  were  lost  to  the 
British,  together  with  their  buildings,  supplies,  arid  furs.  In 
1816,  shortly  after  the  close  of  the  war,  factories  were  estab- 
lished at  Green  Bay  and  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  both  of  which  places 
were  within  Illinois  territory,  and  at  Chicago.  This  last  was 
placed  under  the  supervision  of  Jacob  B.  Varnum.  Matthew 
Irwin  and  John  W.  Johnson  were  appointed  factors  at  Green  Bay 
and  Prairie  du  Chien,  respectively.  A  trading  house  was  built 
at  Fort  Edwards  in  1818,  as  a  branch  of  the  establishment  at 
Prairie  du  Chien,  with  Robert  Belt  as  the  assistant  in  charge ;  but 
the  next  year  this  was  made  an  independent  establishment.  It 

"Statutes  at  Large,  2:652. 


18  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

was  designed  to  supply  the  tribes  between  Prairie  du  Chien  and 
St.  Louis,  and  to  drive  out  the  unprincipled  private  traders  oper- 
ating in  that  quarter,  who,  the  superintendent  of  trade  declared, 
had  during  the  past  two  years  supplied  the  Sauk  and  Fox  Indians 
with  no  less  than  fifty  barrels  of  whiskey. 

The  goods  used  at  the  government  factories  were  all  purchased 
under  the  direction  of  the  superintendent  of  Indian  trade,  Thomas 
L.  McKenney,  who  had  his  headquarters  at  Georgetown,  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia.  The  articles  designed  for  Fort  Edwards 
and  Prairie  du  Chien  were  generally  sent  to  Pittsburgh  to  be 
shipped  down  the  Ohio  to  St.  Louis.  There  they  were  received 
by  James  Kennerley,  who  acted  as  forwarding  agent  and  sent 
them  up  the  Mississippi  to  their  respective  destinations.  The 
peltry  received  from  the  Indians  at  Fort  Edwards  in  1818 
included  deer,  bear,  beaver,  otter,  raccoon,  and  muskrat.  A  por- 
tion of  the  goods  was  also  traded  for  lead,  obtained  by  the  Indians 
from  the  mines  below  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  for  beeswax,  tallow, 
and  Indian  mats.  These  furs  and  other  goods  were  sent  to 
Kennerley  at  St.  Louis  and  forwarded  by  him  up  the  Ohio  to 
Pittsburgh.  The  trade  at  Chicago  and  Green  Bay  was  conducted 
in  a  manner  very  similar  to  that  at  Fort  Edwards  and  Prairie  du 
Chien,  with  the  exception  that  the  goods  were  forwarded  to  the 
factories  and  the  returns  shipped  back  by  way  of  the  great  lakes. 
Not  all  the  goods  received  at  the  trading  houses  in  the  northwest 
were  exchanged  directly  with  the  Indians  by  the  factors.  At 
times  some  of  them  were  made  up  into  outfits  and  sold  to  private 
traders,  who  carried  them  out  into  the  interior.  Sometimes  the 
factors  at  the  government  houses  sold  the  peltry  which  they 
received  to  private  traders,  but  in  December,  1818,  strict  orders 
were  issued  by  the  superintendent  that  it  was  all  to  be  forwarded 
to  the  Indian  trade  house  at  Georgetown.  The  furs  from  the 
posts  in  the  northwest  were  generally  disposed  of  at  Georgetown 
by  means  of  annual  public  sales.20 

In  so  far  as  the  object  of  the  government  in  establishing  the 
factory  system  was  to  destroy  the  influence  of  the  private  trader 
and  attach  the  Indians  to  the  United  States,  the  plan  must  be 

M  American  State  Papers,  Indian  Affairs,  2  :335. 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE  19 

pronounced  a  failure.  The  power  of  the  private  trade/  increased 
rather  than  diminished,  while  the  tribes  of  the  northwest  still 
regarded  the  United  States  with  suspicion  and  distrust.  The 
system  was  likewise  a  failure  from  a  business  point  of  view. 
Taking  into  consideration  the  cost  of  maintaining  the  factory  at 
Chicago,  the  trade  there  was  conducted  at  a  loss  estimated,  by 
March  31,  1818,  at  nearly  two  thousand  dollars.  In  December 
of  that  year  the  factor  reported  that  he  had  hardly  done  suffi- 
cient business  that  season  to  clear  the  wages  of  his  interpreter.21 
Two  years  later  the  superintendent  of  trade,  in  a  letter  to  the 
secretary  of  war,  wrote,  "I  conceive  it  proper  to  make  known  to 
you  for  the  information  of  the  President  that  the  u.  s.  factory 
at  Chicago  has  ceased,  almost  to  do  business."22  The  trade  at 
Fort  Edwards  in  1818  was  somewhat  more  prosperous  than  that 
at  Chicago,  but  even  there  the  returns  in  furs  and  skins  obtained 
by  the  government  factor  were  probably  insignificant  in  compari- 
son with  those  secured  by  the  private  traders  who  operated  in 
the  region. 

Many  reasons  for  the  failure  of  the  government  factories  in 
their  competition  with  private  traders  were  advanced  by  persons 
supposedly  familiar  with  the  situation.  The  factories  were  so 
few  in  number  and  so  widely  scattered  that  it  was  often  neces- 
sary for  the  Indians  who  wished  to  deal  with  the  government 
agents  to  make  long  journeys  with  their  furs.  The  private 
trader,  on  the  other  hand,  went  out  into  the  wilderness,  carrying 
his  goods  to  the  Indians  at  their  hunting  grounds  or  villages. 
The  government  factors,  moreover,  were  not  allowed  to  give 
credit  in  their  dealings  with  the  Indians.  When  cold  weather 
approached,  the  savages  were  usually  without  money  or  furs  but 
it  was  necessary  for  them  to  secure  many  articles,  such  as  guns, 
ammunition,  traps,  kettles,  and  blankets,  before  they  could  set 
out  for  their  wintering  grounds.  Since  these  articles  could  not 
be  obtained  at  the  factories,  the  Indians  were  obliged  to  resort 
to  the  private  traders,  who  were  more  than  willing  to  supply 
their  needs  on  credit.  The  obvious  result  was  that  the  private 

"Morse,  Report  on  Indian  Affairs,  46. 

"Indian  Office  Papers,  Trade  Letter  Book,  E  (1818-1820)    1496. 


20  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

trader  obtained  by  far  the  larger  share  of  the  returns  of  the  win- 
ter's hunt.  Furthermore  it  is  certain  that  the  private  traders 
were  able  to  evade  the  vigilance  of  the  government  agents  and 
make  extensive  use  of  liquor  in  their  trading  operations,  and  this 
gave  them  a  decided  advantage  over  the  factors,  although  it  was 
in  the  long  run  injurious  to  the  trade  as  a  whole.  The  Indian 
would  give  up  everything  he  possessed,  including  furs  and  even 
clothing  itself,  for  a  little  whiskey.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  it 
was  not  the  intention  of  the  government  to  derive  any  profit 
from  the  trade,  it  appears  that  the  goods  supplied  by  the  factors 
usually  sold  at  prices  higher  than  those  charged  by  the  private 
traders  and  were  often  of  inferior  quality.  Thus,  notwithstand- 
ing the  benevolent  intentions  of  the  government  in  establishing 
trading  houses,  the  Indians  could  derive  no  advantages  from 
dealing  with  the  factories. 

Factors  and  agents  alike  complained  frequently  and  loudly  of 
the  evil  influence  of  foreign  traders  until  one  is  almost  tempted 
to  believe  that  the  British  were  made  the  scapegoats  for  all  the 
misfortunes  which  attended  the  efforts  of  the  United  States  to 
regulate  Indian  affairs  and  to  carry  on  the  fur  trade.  Referring 
to  the  Chicago  factory  in  1820,  the  superintendent  of  trade 
wrote:  "The  causes  which  has  so  successfully  prostrated  the 
once  flourishing  hopes  of  this  establishment,  is  so  notorious,  as 
hardly  to  need  refering  to.  It  lies  deep  in  the  influence  (prin- 
cipally British,)  which  is  spread  so  generally  over  that  region; 
and  in  the  combinations  which  have  been  entered  into  to  do 
away,  from  amongst  the  Indians  inhabiting  that  Country,  what- 
ever controll  the  u.  s.  may  essay  to  acquire  over  them,  either  by 
the  Factory  or  any  other  system."23  There  is  no  direct  evidence, 
however,  that  the  British  traders  were  any  more  active  than  the 
American  traders  in  prejudicing  the  minds  of  the  Indians  against 
the  government  factories.  It  was  the  American  Fur  Company, 
in  fact,  which  finally  gave  the  death  blow  to  the  factory  system. 

A  most  important  reason  for  the  failure  of  the  factories  to 
accomplish  their  purposes  is  to  be  found  in  the  attitude  of  the 
Indians  themselves  toward  them.  Governor  Cass,  as  early  as 

"Indian  Office  Papers,  Trade  Letter  Book,  E  (1818-1820)    :4Q6. 


SHABBONA 

(Negative  owned  by  Illinois  State  Historical  Library] 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE  21 

1814,  wrote:  "Our  trading  factories,  and  our  economy  in 
presents  have  rendered  us  contemptible  to  them.  The  Govern- 
ment should  never  come  in  contact  with  them  but  in  those  cases 
where  its  dignity,  its  strength  or  its  liberality  will  inspire  them 
with  respect  or  fear."24  In  fact,  the  savages  seem  to  have  mis- 
conceived entirely  the  nature  of  the  factory  system  and  the  pur- 
pose of  the  government  in  inaugurating  it.  Major  Marston, 
who  commanded  at  Fort  Armstrong,  on  Rock  Island,  revealed 
the  attitude  of  the  Indians  living  in  that  vicinity.  If  mention 
were  made  to  them  of  their  Great  Father,  the  president,  supply- 
ing them  with  goods,  they  would  reply,  "You  are  a  pash-i-pash- 
i-to,  (a  fool)  our  Great  Father  is  certainly  no  trader;  he  has  sent 
those  goods  to  be  given  to  us,  as  presents;  but  his  Agents  are 
endeavouring  to  cheat  us,  by  selling  them  for  our  peltries."25 
Needless  to  say,  this  attitude  was  fostered  by  the  private  traders 
who  did  everything  in  their  power  to  drive  the  factories  out  of 
existence.  In  this  opposition  the  lead  was  taken  by  the  Amer- 
ican Fur  Company,  and  its  influence  was  strong  enough  to 
nullify  all  efforts  to  strengthen  the  system,  and  finally  brought 
about  its  abolition  in  1822. 

The  government  factories  are  of  interest  chiefly  from  the 
political  rather  than  from  the  commercial  point  of  view,  for  it 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  private  concerns  that  the  fur  industry 
attained  its  highest  development.  The  Indian  trader  in  Illinois 
had  a  long  and  varied  career  and  the  story  of  his  picturesque 
wilderness  traffic  constitutes  an  alluring  phase  of  the  history  of 
the  state.  For  over  a  century  the  smooth-flowing  streams  of 
Illinois  were  disturbed  by  the  paddle  of  the  French-Canadian 
voyageur  and  the  hills  on  either  side  reechoed  his  melodious 
songs,  while  during  part  of  that  period  the  prairies  and  forests 
recognized  the  semi-feudal  authority  of  a  great  fur  company. 
Controlled  in  turn  by  the  French,  the  English,  and  finally  by  the 
Americans,  the  fur  trade,  as  it  was  carried  on  in  Illinois  in  1818, 
bore  traces  of  both  the  French  and  the  British  regimes.  The 

"Indian  Office  Papers,  Michigan  Letter  Book,  I  (1814-1817)    7. 
""Blair,  Indian  Tribes,  2:177. 


22  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

engages  who  performed  the  menial  labor  connected  with  the  in- 
dustry, as  well  as  many  of  the  traders  who  bartered  with  the 
Indians,  were,  in  some  instances,  descendants  of  the  coureurs  de 
bois  who  had  come  while  the  fleur-de-lis  still  waved  over  the 
region  of  the  great  lakes  and  the  Mississippi  valley.  The  influ- 
ence of  the  British  period,  on  the  other  hand,  may  .be  traced  in 
the  business  organization  of  the  trade. 

It  is  difficult  for  the  present  inhabitants  to  realize  the  extent 
to  which  wild  game  once  abounded  in  the  state,  and  the  enormous 
quantities  of  peltry  which  were  annually  exported.  The  valley 
of  the  Illinois  river  was,  at  the  dose  of  the  territorial  period,  one 
of  the  important  fur  bearing  areas  of  the  northwest.  In  1816, 
the  furs  sent  out  from  the  various  posts  upon  the  Illinois  river 
included  ten  thousand  deer,  three  hundred  bear,  ten  thousand  rac- 
coons, thirty-five  thousand  muskrat,  four  hundred  otter,  three 
hundred  pounds  of  beaver,  five  hundred  cat  and  fox,  and  one 
hundred  mink.  The  total  value  of  this  peltry  was  estimated  at 
$23,700.  The  merchandise  imported  into  the  region  during  the 
same  year  was  estimated  to  be  worth  $18,000.  Chicago  was  an 
important  trade  center,  and  the  furs  exported  thence  in  the  same 
year  were  estimated  to  be  worth  more  than  $8,ooo.2<  In  consid- 
ering the  Illinois  fur  trade,  it  should  be  remembered  that  it  con- 
stituted only  one  part  of  an  industry  of  enormous  proportions, 
covering  the  great  lakes  region,  and  extending  westward  far 
beyond  the  Mississippi,  an  industry  which  at  one  time  or  another 
has  made  its  influence  felt  in  almost  every  part  of  the  North 
American  continent. 

By  far  the  largest  and  most  important  of  the  trading  concerns 
operating  in  Illinois  and  the  northwest  in  1818  was  the  Amer- 
ican Fur  Company.  At  the  close  of  the  war  of  1812,  a  large 
part  of  the  trade  of  the  great  lakes  region  was  in  the  hands  of 
two  associations,  the  Northwest  and  Southwest  companies.  The 
former  was  a  British  concern,  in  which  were  included  a  number 
of  the  most  powerful  trading  firms  of  Montreal,  but  it  had  sev- 
eral posts  south  of  the  boundary  line,  within  the  territory  of  the 
United  States.  The  Southwest  Company  was  owned  by  John 

"The  exports  from  the  Illinois  river  in  1816  also  included  ten  thousand 
pounds  of  maple  sugar. 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE  23 

Jacob  Astor  and  certain  Montreal  traders,  Astor  having  a  two- 
thirds  interest  in  the  trade  carried  on  within  the  United  States. 

The  act  of  congress  of  1816  excluding  foreigners  from  the  fur 
trade  unless  specially  licensed  made  it  difficult  for  the  Canadian 
firms  to  operate  their  trading  posts  upon  American  territory. 
Immediately  upon  the  passage  of  this  act,  Astor,  who  cherished 
the  design  of  obtaining  control  of  the  entire  fur  trade  within 
the  limits  of  the  United  States,  formed  a  concern  which  he  called 
the  American  Fur  Company  and  purchased  not  only  the  interest 
of  the  Montreal  merchants  in  the  Southwest  Company  but  a  num- 
ber of  posts  of  the  Northwest  Company  on  American  soil  as  well 
Besides  the  posts,  Astor  was  able  to  secure  the  services  of  a  large 
number  of  traders  and  engages  formerly  attached  to  them  who 
would  otherwise  have  been  thrown  out  of  employment-  The 
act  of  1816  was  interpreted  so  as  not  to  exclude  foreign  engages, 
and  thus  it  was  possible  for  the  new  company  to  make  use  of  the 
services  of  these  British  subjects,  without  whose  assistance, 
indeed,  success  in  an  enterprise  of  such  magnitude  as  was  con- 
templated would  have  been  almost  impossible."  In  order  that  the 
manner  of  conducting  the  business  might  have  an  appearance  of 
legality,  licenses  were  taken  out  in  the  names  of  young  American 
clerks,  while  the  actual  conduct  of  the  trade  was  in  the  hands  of 
those  who  had  formerly  been  in  the  service  of  the  British  mer- 
chants, and  who  possessed  the  necessary  experience. 

The  American  Fur  Company  began  operations  in  1817,  and  in 
the  following  year  its  trade  covered  a  wide  range  of  territory, 
stretching  from  the  eastern  shores  of  Lake  Huron  to  the  Missouri 
river  and  from  the  Canadian  boundary  to  the  frontier  line  of 
settlements  in  Illinois  and  Indiana.  Traders  supplied  by  Aster's 
company  were  to  be  found  along  the  shores  of  Green  Bay,  in  the 
valley  of  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin  rivers,  and  also  upon  the  upper 
reaches  of  the  Minnesota  river,  then  called  the  St.  Peter's;  they 
coasted  along  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan  and  Lake  Superior, 
trading  with  the  Indians  from  such  posts  as  Milwaukee  and  Fond 
du  Lac;  they  descended  the  Mississippi  from  Prairie  du  Chien, 

"Chittenden,  American  Fur  Trade,  l  310,  311 ;  Bancroft,  History  of  the 
Northwest  Coast,  1 013.  Chittenden  says  that  Astor  was  largely  instru- 
mental in  securing  the  passage  of  the  law  referred  to. 


24  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

exchanging  goods  for  furs  with  the  Indians  living  in  Illinois  and 
Missouri  territories;  and  every  year  their  brigades  visited  the 
Illinois  and  Wabash  rivers,  to  reap  the  rich  harvest  of  peltry  in 
their  valleys.28 

Astor  and  his  agents  entered  upon  the  conduct  of  the  north- 
west trade  with  the  avowed  intention  of  driving  all  competitors 
from  the  field.  Such  a  task  necessarily  required  some  time,  but 
the  spirit  of  this  undertaking  is  revealed  in  the  words  of  Ramsay 
Crooks  and  Robert  Stuart,  agents  of  the  company  who  wrote  to 
Astor  in  the  summer  of  1817 :  "Next  year  our  exertions  must  be 
more  general  and  efforts  must  be  made  to  embrace  every  section 
of  the  trade  and  not  leave  the[m]  [the  competitors]  a  corner  to 
repose  in — this  summer  it  was  impossible  to  effect  every- 
th[ing.]"29  The  following  season,  Stuart  was  able  to  report  that 
his  colleague  had,  after  much  effort,  secured  the  services  of  nearly 
every  good  trader  in  the  whole  region  in  the  interests  of  the  com- 
pany. He  added  that  while  their  rivals  had  carried  on  a  vigor- 
ous competition  in  every  section  of  the  interior,  there  was  good 
reason  to  believe  that  they  were  secretly  disheartened.  In  1819, 
Astor  was  considering  the  advisability  of  contracting  somewhat 
the  range  of  the  company's  operations  but  Crooks  advised  against 
it,  pointing  out  that  victory  over  their  rivals  was  almost  within 
their  grasp  and  that  to  yield  any  ground  at  that  particular  time 
would  strengthen  the  opposition  by  just  so  much.80 

The  arbiter  of  the  destinies  of  the  American  Fur  Company 
was  its  founder,  John  Jacob  Astor.  He  directed  the  general 
policy  of  the  concern,  and  superintended  the  conduct  of  the  busi- 
ness at  its  headquarters  in  New  York.  The  management  of 
affairs  in  the  Indian  country  itself,  as  well  as  along  the  commun- 
ications to  New  York  and  Montreal  was  entrusted  to  the  two 
young  Scotchmen  already  named,  Ramsay  Crooks  and  Robert 
Stuart.  These  agents  gathered  merchandise  and  provisions  for 
use  in  the  trade  and  arranged  for  transporting  them  to  Mack- 

^An  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  company's  operations  may  be  readily  gained 
from  the  list  of  American  Fur  Company  employees,  1818-1819,  published  in 
the  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  12:154. 

**American  Fur  Company  Letter  Book,  1816-1820,  p.  50. 
"Ibid.,  p.  109,  260. 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE  25 

inac  Island,  the  general  rendezvous  of  the  company  in  the  north- 
west. It  was  their  business  to  see  that  a  sufficient  number 
of  engages  was  hired  to  perform  the  labor  of  carrying  goods  and 
furs,  as  well  as  enough  clerks  and  traders  to  carry  on  the  busi- 
ness in  the  interior.  They  organized  the  different  departments 
in  which  the  traffic  was  conducted,  assigned  the  traders  and 
engages  to  their  wintering  grounds,  and  directed  the  preparation 
of  the  outfits.  When  the  peltries  came  in  from  the  Indian  coun- 
try in  the  spring,  the  agents  saw  to  it  that  they  were  properly 
sorted  and  packed  and  prepared  for  shipment  to  the  eastern 
market.  Ramsay  Crooks'  headquarters  were  nominally  at  New 
York,  but  he  spent  a  great  deal  of  his  time  at  Mackinac,  and  occa- 
sionally made  visits  to  the  interior. 

Mackinac  was  in  1818  the  great  entrepot  of  the  northwest  fur 
trade,  the  place  of  rendezvous  of  the  traders  and  engages  of  the 
region.  When  the  goods  from  New  York  and  Montreal  arrived, 
they  were  made  up  into  outfits,  which  were  supplied  to  the  traders 
on  various  terms.  Some  were  turned  over  to  clerks  and  traders 
in  the  regular  employ  of  the  concern,  who  were  paid  a  stipulated 
wage  and  instructed  to  exchange  the  goods  entrusted  to  their  care 
to  the  best  possible  advantage,  on  the  account  of  the  company. 
Other  outfits  were  traded  on  shares ;  that  is  to  say,  the  company 
received  a  certain  proportion  of  the  returns  and  the  remainder 
belonged  to  the  trader  who  bartered  with  the  Indians.  Still 
other  traders  purchased  their  goods  outright  from  the  company, 
which  had  no  interest  in  them  thereafter,  save  to  collect  the 
amount  for  which  they  were  sold. 

The  three  principal  regions  of  fur  trading  activity  of  Illinois 
interest  were  that  portion  of  the  Mississippi  between  Prairie  du 
Chien  and  St.  Louis,  and  the  Illinois  and  Wabash  river  valleys. 
In  1817,  a  clerk  named  Russell  Farnham  was  sent  out  from 
Mackinac  with  an  assortment  of  goods  to  be  traded  along  the 
Mississippi  and  its  tributaries  below  Prairie  du  Chien.  The 
goods  were  to  be  traded  on  the  account  of  the  company,  Farn- 
ham being  merely  a  salaried  employee.  The  instructions  made  it 
clear  that  while  the  outfit  was  nominally  under  his  charge,  the 
business  of  dealing  with  the  Indians  was  to  be  supervised  by  one 


26  ,  -LINOIS  IN  1818 

St.  Jean,  a  trader  of  long  experience,  to  whose  judgment  was 
left  the  choice  of  a  spot  in  which  to  spend  the  winter.  Before 
setting  out,  Farnham  was  given  a  license  issued  by  Major  Put- 
huff,  Indian  agent  at  Mackinac,  authorizing  him  to  trade  in  any 
part  of  the  Indian  country.  He  was  instructed  to  proceed  to  St. 
Louis,  where  he  was  to  obtain  a  territorial  and  United  States 
license,  which  would  permit  him  to  sell  goods  on  both  the  Illinois 
and  Missouri  sides  of  the  river,  in  territory  which  had  been 
ceded  by  the  natives.31 

Upon  arriving  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  Farnham  and  Daniel 
Darling,  another  trader  who  accompanied  the  outfit,  were  ordered 
by  Lieutenant  Colonel  Chambers,  who  commanded  at  Fort  Craw- 
ford, to  have  no  dealings  with  the  Indians  until  new  licenses  had 
been  obtained  from  the  governor  of  Missouri  territory.  The 
traders  defied  Colonel  Chambers,  who  thereupon  sent  them  to 
St.  Louis  under  military  escort.  Though  this  mishap  injured 
the  trade  to  a  considerable  extent,  Farnham  succeeded  in  opening 
up  a  traffic  with  certain  Indians  lying  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  did  fairly  well,  considering  his  handicap.  In  the  following 
year,  1818,  Farnham  once  more  returned  to  the  Mississippi, 
carrying  with  him  an  outfit  to  be  traded  with  the  Sauk,  in  which 
he  himself  had  an  interest.  Though  some  further  difficulties 
were  experienced  on  this  second  voyage,  the  reports  indicated 
that  the  trade  in  the  department  was  successful.  There  was  at 
this  time  strenuous  competition  on  the  Mississippi  between  the 
American  Fur  Company  and  a  group  of  traders  with  headquar- 
ters at  St.  Louis,  and  this  spirit  of  rivalry  may  have  partially 
accounted  for  the  difficulties  which  Farnham  experienced  during 
the  course  of  his  operations  in  that  quarter.82  The  department 
of  the  Mississippi  was  on  the  whole  quite  productive,  the  Sauk 
and  Fox  being  the  principal  nations  from  which  returns  were 
secured. 

"American  Fur  Company  Letter  Book,  1816-1820,  p.  47. 

"Chittenden,  American  Fur  Trade,  1:312.  The  agents  of  the  company 
made  vigorous  protests  against  the  interference  which  their  traders  met  with 
at  the  hands  of  the  United  States  officers.  The  nominal  ground  for  the 
interference  appears  to  have  been  that  Farnham's  brigade  included  foreign 
traders  who  were  excluded  from  operating  in  United  States  territory  by  the 
law  of  1816. 


MONK'S  MOUND,  MADISON  COUNTY 

[From  Wild,  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  (1841),  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 


A  FRENCH  TRADER 

[Copyright  1900  by  Charles  Moore! 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE  27 

The  commerce  of  the  department  of  the  Illinois  river  was 
under  the  supervision  of  Antoine  Deschamps,  an  experienced 
trader,  who  selected  the  sites  for  the  various  posts  and  assigned 
the  clerks  and  engages  to  their  winter  quarters.  From  a  list  of 
the  employees  of  the  American  Fur  Company  in  1818  and  1819 
it  appears  that  some  thirty  clerks,  traders,  interpreters,  and  boat- 
men were  located  upon  the  Illinois  river;  the  reports  of  Crooks 
to  Astor  show  that  the  trade  of  the  Illinois  posts  was  fairly  suc- 
cessful during  this  period.  The  number  of  men  engaged  in  the 
trade  for  the  company  upon  the  Wabash,  according  to  the  same 
list  of  employees,  was  sixteen  or  seventeen,  and  it  is  probable 
that  some  of  these  occasionally  penetrated  into  Illinois.  There 
were  also  scattered  traders  of  the  concern  upon  the  Desplaines 
and  Kankakee  rivers,  and  at  least  two  traders  at  Chicago  in  1818, 
James  Kinzie  and  Jean  Baptiste  Chandonnais  were  equipped  by 
the  American  Fur  Company.  Jean  Baptiste  Beaubien  was  trans- 
ferred from  Milwaukee  to  Chicago  about  this  time.  The  Detroit 
firm  of  Conant  and  Mack  also  maintained  an  establishment  at 
a  place  known  as  "Hardscrabble"  on  the  south  branch  of  the 
Chicago  river.  A  trader  by  the  name  of  John  Crafts  was  in 
charge  and  his  strategic  position  enabled  him  to  intercept  the 
Indians  on  their  way  to  Chicago  from  the  Illinois,  the  Desplaines, 
and  the  Kankakee  rivers.  It  is  said  that  Crafts  also  sent  out- 
fits to  Rock  river  and  other  places  within  a  range  of  about  one 
hundred  miles.83 

The  men  engaged  in  the  fur  trade  fell  into  two  distinct  classes, 
the  voyageurs  or  engages,  who  performed  the  menial  labor,34 
and  the  traders  who  directed  operations — the  bourgeois  of  the 
French  regime.  Many  of  the  voyageurs  were  half-breeds,  de- 
scendants of  the  coureurs  de  bois  who  had  taken  to  the  wilder- 
ness in  the  early  days  of  French  occupation  of  Canada.  Others 

"Andreas,  History  of  Chicago,  I  :Q2  et  seq.;  Wisconsin  Historical  Collec- 
tions, 12:154;  American  Fur  Company  Letter  Book,  1816-1820,  p.  28,  123; 
Hurlbut,  Chicago  Antiquities,  31. 

*4The  terms  engage  and  voyageur,  as  generally  used,  are  almost  synony- 
mous, though  the  former  term  includes  not  only  the  boatmen  or  voyageurs, 
but  also  those  who  performed  other  forms  of  labor  incidental  to  the  trade. 
The  persons  employed  in  the  trade  were  obliged  to  sign  contracts,  or  engage- 
ments, by  which  they  bound  themselves  to  perform  certain  stipulated  services 
for  a  definite  period  of  time.  There  are  at  the  present  day  a  great  many  of 
these  engagements  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  District  of  Montreal. 


28  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

were  native-born  Canadians  and  had  left  wives  and  children  in 
the  little  parishes  in  the  neighborhood  of  far-away  Montreal,  to 
come  into  the  wilderness  and  eke  out  a  difficult  and  precarious 
livelihood.  All  observers  agree  in  describing  the  voyageurs  as  a 
happy,  care-free  lot,  cheerfully  performing  their  arduous  labors 
and  taking  no  thought  for  the  morrow  with  its  possible  dangers 
and  privations.  "These  people,"  wrote  Crooks,  "are  indispen- 
sable to  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  trade,  their  places  can- 
not be  supplied  by  Americans,  who  are  for  the  most  part  are 
[sic]  too  independent  to  submit  quietly  to  a  proper  controul,  and 
who  can  gain  any  where  a  subsistence  much  superior  to  a  man 
of  the  interior  and  although  the  body  of  the  Yankee  can  resist 
as  much  hardship  as  any  man,  tis  only  in  the  Canadian  we  find 
that  temper  of  mind,  to  render  him  patient  docile  and  persever- 
ing, in  short  they  are  a  people  harmless  in  themselves  whose 
habits  of  submission  fit  them  peculiarly  for  our  business."35 
The  voyageur  stood  in  a  sort  of  feudal  relation  to  the  trader  who 
was  in  command  of  the  brigade,  whose  word  was  law,  both  with 
regard  to  the  property  of  the  company  and  the  persons  in  its 
employ.  James  H.  Lockwood,  a  former  employee  of  the  Amer- 
ican Fur  Company,  said  of  the  voyageurs :  "They  are  very 
easily  governed  by  a  person  who  understands  something  of  their 
nature  and  disposition,  but  their  burgeois  or  employer  must  be 
what  they  consider  a  gentleman,  or  superior  to  themselves,  as 
they  never  feel  much  respect  for  a  man  who  has,  from  an 
engagee,  risen  to  the  rank  of  a  clerk."36 

In  spite  of  the  care- free  and  irresponsible  existence  which  he 
led,  the  lot  of  the  voyageur  was  not  a  particularly  happy  one. 
His  average  salary  was  less  than  one  hundred  dollars  a  year, 
and  his  daily  ration  was  a  soup  made  of  hulled  corn  seasoned 
with  tallow.  The  yearly  outfit  furnished  him  by  his  employer 
consisted  of  perhaps  two  cotton  shirts,  a  triangular  blanket,  a 
portage  collar,  and  a  pair  of  heavy  shoes.  All  luxuries,  such  as 
pipes  and  tobacco,  he  was  obliged  to  furnish  himself.  The  toil 

"American  Fur  Company  Letter  Book,  1816-1820,  p.  12. 
"Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  2:110. 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE  29 

to  which  the  voyageur  was  subjected  was  arduous  in  the  extreme. 
To  drive  a  heavily  laden  canoe  or  Mackinac  boat  through  the 
water  was  in  itself  no  task  for  a  weakling  but  this  was  a  trifle 
in  comparison  with  the  labor  which  confronted  him  at  the  portage 
or  at  the  rapids  or  falls  which  occasionally  interrupted  the 
streams.  Here  the  craft  must  be  unloaded,  and  the  merchandise 
carried  to  the  point  where  the  expedition  was  to  reembark.  The 
older  voyageurs  were  often  wrecks,  broken  down  by  the  labor 
which  they  were  obliged  to  perform  and  the  exposure  to  which 
they  were  subjected. 

The  traders  in  the  employ  of  the  American  Fur  Company  in 
1818  were  partly  experienced  hands,  many  of  whom  were 
French-Canadians  like  Antoine  Deschamps  in  charge  of  the  de- 
partment of  the  Illinois  river,  and  partly  young  clerks,  most  of 
whom  were  Americans.  These  clerks  were  carefully  watched  by 
the  agents  of  the  company,  for  it  was  upon  their  initiative  and 
industry  that  the  future  prosperity  of  the  concern  depended.  The 
advice  which  Ramsay  Crooks  gave  to  Edward  Upham,  a  young 
clerk  located  upon  the  Illinois  and  Kankakee  rivers  in  1819  is  of 
interest  in  this  connection.  He  was  told  to  be  industrious,  cau- 
tious, and  enterprising  and  to  spend  his  time  in  acquiring  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  country  and  its  people  rather  than  in  dozing  away  the 
winter  in  his  hut.37  The  great  event  in  the  trader's  life  was  the 
annual  voyage  to  Mackinac.  According  to  one  observer  who 
visited  the  rendezvous  in  1820,  "The  trader,  or  interior  clerk, 
who  takes  his  outfit  of  goods  to  the  Indians,  and  spends  eleven 
months  of  the  year  in  toil,  and  want,  and  petty  traffic,  appears 
to  dissipate  his  means  with  a  sailor-like  improvidence  in  a  few 
weeks,  and  then  returns  to  his  forest  wanderings;  and  boiled 
corn,  pork,  and  wild  rice  again  supply  his  wants."38 

The  goods  which  the  wilderness  trader  carried  to  the  Indians 
in  exchange  for  their  furs  included  a  great  variety  of  objects, 
and  by  no  means  consisted  entirely  of  trinkets  designed  to  satisfy 
the  vanity  of  the  savage.  The  assortment  of  the  trader  in  the 
Illinois  country  in  1818  included  such  goods  as  blankets,  strouds, 

''American  Fur  Company  Letter  Book,  1816-1820,  p.  169. 
"Schoolcraft,  Discovery  of  the  Sources  of  the  Mississippi,  69. 


30  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

handkerchiefs,  tools  of  all  sorts,  guns,  ammunition,  and  kettles — 
articles  which  were  really  useful  or  even  indispensable  to  the 
savage  in  his  everyday  life.  On  the  other  hand,  the  outfit  usually 
contained  some  luxuries,  such  as  ribbons,  jewelry,  wampum, 
tobacco,  pipes,  vermilion,  earbobs,  and  even  jew's-harps. 

The  craft  in  which  the  fur  traders  conveyed  their  outfits  on 
lakes  and  streams  of  the  northwest  were  mainly  of  two  sorts, 
the  bateau,  or  "Mackinac  boat,"  and  the  canoe.  The  former 
was  a  light  boat,  some  thirty  feet  long,  cut  away  at  both  bow  and 
stern.  It  was  navigated  by  five  men,  four  of  whom  propelled  it 
with  oars,  while  the  fifth  steered.  The  canoe  in  which  one 
employee  of  the  American  Fur  Company  navigated  Lake  Mich- 
igan in  1818  was  made  of  birch  bark  and  was  thirty-three  feet 
long  by  four  and  a  half  feet  broad,  tapering  toward  the  bow 
and  stern  posts.  The  bark  was  sewed  with  wattap,  and  pine 
gum  was  used  for  the  seams.  The  canoe  was  propelled  by 
paddles,  with  the  occasional  assistance  of  a  sail.  There  were 
eight  voyageurs  to  each  canoe,  those  stationed  at  the  bow  and 
stern  being  men  of  particular  skill,  who  received  double  wages. 
Two  or  more  canoes  or  boats  formed  a  brigade,  which  was 
under  the  charge  of  a  guide  or  brigade  commander.  Each  man 
was  allowed  to  carry  a  sack  containing  forty  pounds  of  baggage. 
The  entire  cargo  of  the  canoe,  including  goods,  provisions,  crew, 
and  baggage,  was  about  four  tons.  In  propelling  these  boats,  the 
voyageurs  moved  their  oars  or  paddles  to  the  rhythm  of  their 
French-Canadian  boat  songs,  in  which  the  bourgeois  often  took 
the  lead.  Every  five  miles  or  so,  the  bourgeois  might  shout 
"Whoop  la !  a  terre,  a  terre — pour  la  pipe !"  and  the  whole  bri- 
gade would  pause  to  rest  while  the  men  smoked  a  welcome  pipe  of 
tobacco.  Thus  distances  on  the  lakes  and  streams  of  the  interior 
came  to  be  measured  in  "pipes"  rather  than  miles. 

As  the  trader  advanced  into  the  interior,  he  gave  out  goods  to 
the  savages  whom  he  passed,  the  Indians  promising  to  bring  in 
the  returns  of  their  winter's  hunt  in  exchange  for  them.  Arrived 
at  the  post,  the  trader  unpacked  his  goods  and  gave  credit  to  the 
Indians  in  the  vicinity,  who  thereupon  departed  for  their  hunting 
grounds.  The  average  value  of  the  goods  advanced  to  each 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE  31 

man  was  about  forty  or  fifty  dollars,  calculated  at  cost  prices, 
but  the  honesty  and  ability  of  the  individual  hunter  were  taken 
into  consideration.  The  amounts  were  carefully  entered  in  the 
books  and  the  trader  aimed  to  secure  in  exchange  furs  valued  at 
at  least  twice  the  cost  of  the  goods  advanced.  Of  course,  bands 
came  in  from  time  to  time  with  furs  to  be  bartered  on  the  spot, 
while  during  the  winter  the  trader  usually  made  occasional  visits 
to  the  Indians  at  their  hunting  grounds.  In  the  wilderness  trade, 
the  unit  of  exchange  was  the  plus,  originally  the  value  of  a  pound 
of  beaver  skin,  but  later  the  equivalent  of  one  dollar.  Whiskey, 
the  curse  of  the  fur  trade,  was  used  extensively  in  spite  of  the 
vigorous  efforts  of  the  United  States  authorities  to  keep  it  out 
of  the  Indian  country.  When  the  trader  and  the  Indian  came 
together,  it  was  customary  to  use  some  liquor  to  facilitate  the 
traffic,  with  the  result  that  the  proceedings  at  these  meetings 
were  sometimes  rather  uproarious.  Under  the  stress  of  com- 
petition whiskey  flowed  more  freely  and  the  disorder  increased. 
The  policy  of  the  great  company  in  its  dealings  with  the 
savages  is  indicated  by  the  advice  which  Crooks  gave  to  a  young 
trader  in  1819.  He  was  told  to  bear  in  mind  that  with  the  Indian 
as  with  the  civilized  man,  "honesty  is  the  best  policy."  If  the 
Indian  could  be  convinced  that  the  trader  was  always  just,  his 
own  disposition  to  cheat  would  gradually  disappear,  particularly 
when  he  discovered  that  the  trader,  being  just  himself,  would  not 
suffer  others  to  defraud  him.  Nevertheless,  the  Indian  trade 
was  not  regarded  as  an  appropriate  field  for  the  application  of 
idealistic  principles.  When  free  from  the  interference  of  rival 
traders  the  Indians  could  usually  be  relied  upon  to  fulfill  their 
contracts  but  the  presence  of  competition  was  always  a  demor- 
alizing factor.  Traders  would  sometimes  induce  the  Indians  to 
steal  the  credits  of  their  rivals ;  that  is,  they  persuaded  them  to 
give  up  the  furs  which  they  had  already  pledged  to  another 
trader  in  return  for  goods  advanced  to  them.  There  was  bound 
to  be  more  or  less  uncertainty  in  the  collection  of  credits  so  that 
the  traders  were  obliged  to  regulate  their  prices  in  such  a  way 
as  to  compensate  themselves  for  possible  losses.  On  the  whole, 
however,  when  the  lack  of  facilities  for  communication  in  the 


32  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

Indian  country  and  the  roving  character  of  the  natives  are  taken 
into  account,  the  degree  of  influence  which  the  trader  exercised 
over  his  Indian  customers  was  really  most  remarkable. 

One  of  the  young  American  employees  of  the  fur  company, 
Gurdon  Saltonstall  Hubbard  by  name,  has  left  a  narrative  of  his 
experiences  with  the  Illinois  brigade  which  presents  a  vivid 
picture  of  the  fur  trade  as  it  existed  in  northern  Illinois  in  the 
year  in  which  the  state  was  admitted  .to  the  union.39  On  the 
morning  of  the  thirteenth  of  May,  1818,  the  brigade  which  Hub- 
bard  accompanied  to  Mackinac  departed  from  Lachine,  a  little 
village  just  above  Montreal,  the  oars  keeping  time  to  the  rhythm 
of  the  Canadian  boat  song.  Nearly  two  months  later,  July  4, 
the  brigade  reached  Mackinac  where  it  was  warmly  welcomed 
by  Crooks  and  Stuart,  the  agents  of  the  company,  together  with 
a  host  of  voyageurs  and  clerks.  At  Mackinac  Hubbard  found 
all  the  traders  and  their  engages  from  the  interior  gathered  on 
the  island,  where  they  added  some  three  thousand  to  the  popula- 
tion. Indians  numbering  some  two  or  three  thousand  more  lined 
the  entire  beach  with  their  wigwams.  These  Indians,  he  says, 
made  day  and  night  hideous  with  the  yells  they  emitted  while 
performing  their  war  dances  and  other  sports.  There  were  also 
frequent  fights  between  the  champions  or  "bullies"  of  the  various 
brigades. 

After  the  traders  had  disposed  of  the  returns  of  the  past  sea- 
son and  secured  new  outfits,  preparations  were  made  for  the 
departure  of  the  brigades  for  the  various  posts  of  the  interior. 
"A  vast  multitude  assembled  at  the  harbor  to  witness  their  de- 
parture, and  when  all  was  ready  the  boats  glided  from  the  shore, 
the  crews  singing  some  favorite  boat  song,  while  the  multitude 
shouted  their  farewells  and  wishes  for  a  successful  trip  and  a 
safe  return;  and  thus  outfit  after  outfit  started  on  its  way  for 
Lake  Superior,  Upper  and  Lower  Mississippi,  and  other 
posts."40  The  Illinois  and  Wabash  outfits  were  among  the  last  to 

"The  narrative  was  published  first  in  Incidents  and  Events  in  the  Life 
of  Gurdon  Saltonstall  Hubbard  (1888).  It  is  also  to  be  found  in  The  Auto- 
biography of  Gurdon  Saltonstall  Hubbard  (1911).  For  the  material  on 
which  the  following  paragraphs  are  based  see  Incidents  and  Events,  11-67  or 
the  Autobiography,  7-64. 

"Hubbard,  Incidents  and  Events,  25. 


THE  BATEAU 

[From  A  History  of  Trawl  in  America,  by  Seymour  Dunbar,  used  by  special 
permission  of  the  publishers,  The  Bobbs-Merrill  Company,  Indianapolis] 


THE  Coureur  de  Bois  AND  THE  SAVAGE 
[Copyright  1900  by  Charles  Moore] 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE  33 

leave,  being  followed  by  the  smaller  expeditions  bound  for  the 
shores  of  Lakes  Huron  and  Michigan.  At  about  noon  on  the 
tenth  of  September,  the  Illinois  brigade  left  the  harbor  at  Mack- 
inac  in  twelve  boats,  with  Antoine  Deschamps,  who  was  in  charge 
of  the  outfit,  leading  the  boat  song.  Many  of  the  traders  were 
accompanied  by  their  Indian  wives,  and  the  brigade  must  indeed 
have  presented  a  motley  appearance.  The  boats  proceeded  down 
the  east  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  making  about  forty  miles  a 
day,  under  oars,  but  when  the  wind  was  favorable,  square  sails 
were  hoisted  by  means  of  which  it  was  possible  to  make  seventy 
or  seventy-five  miles  a  day. 

On  the  evening  of  September  30,  just  twenty  days  after  the 
departure  from  Mackinac,  the  expedition  arrived  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Calumet  river,  where  it  was  met  by  a  party  of  Indians 
returning  from  a  visit  to  Chicago.  They  were  drunk  and  started 
a  fight  among  themselves  in  which  several  of  their  number  were 
killed,  necessitating  the  removal  of  the  trading  party  to  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  river  for  safety.  The  members  of  the  brigade 
spent  a  portion  of  the  night  in  preparation  for  their  arrival  at 
Chicago.  "We  started  at  dawn,"  says  Hubbard.  "The  morn- 
ing was  calm  and  bright,  and  we,  in  our  holiday  attire,  with  flags 
flying,  completed  the  last  twelve  miles  of  our  lake  voyage."41 
The  brigade  spent  a  few  days  at  Chicago  repairing  the  boats,  and 
then  passed  up  the  south  branch  of  the  Chicago  river  into  Mud 
lake,  a  sort  of  marsh,  which  drained  partly  into  the  Chicago 
river  and  partly  into  the  Desplaines.  The  boats  were  half 
dragged,  half  floated,  through  this  marsh  to  the  waters  of  the 
Desplaines,  while  the  goods  were  carried  on  the  backs  of  the 
engages.  After  three  days  of  such  labor,  the  portage  was 
crossed,  the  boats  were  reloaded,  and  the  voyage  to  the  Illinois 
was  begun.  The  water  being  very  low,  the  progress  of  the 
brigade  was  slow  and  difficult,  and  it  was  three  weeks  before  the 
expedition  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Fox  river.  Two  days  more 
brought  the  party  to  the  foot  of  Starved  Rock. 

From  this  point  on,  the  voyage  was  less  difficult,  and  the  bri- 
gade floated  down  the  river,  stopping  occasionally  to  barter 

"Hubbard,  Incidents  and  Events,  31. 


34  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

powder  and  tobacco  for  Indian  corn.  The  first  trading  house  was 
located  at  the  mouth  of  the  Bureau  river  near  the  present  site  of 
the  town  of  Hennepin.  It  was  placed  in  charge  of  a  trader  named 
Bibeau,  who,  though  illiterate,  had  a  wide  experience  in  the  In- 
dian trade.  Hubbard  was  assigned  to  this  post  to  keep  the  ac- 
counts and  perform  the  general  duties  of  clerk.  The  next  post 
was  located  three  miles  below  Peoria  lake  and  was  placed  in 
charge  of  another  old  trader,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  the 
Indians  in  the  vicinity.  The  brigade  proceeded  on  down  the  river, 
establishing  posts  every  sixty  miles  or  so,  the  last  one  being  some 
fifty  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  stream. 

Deschamps  proceeded  with  one  boat  to  St.  Louis  to  purchase 
certain  articles  needed  in  the  trade  and  also  to  obtain  flour  and 
tobacco  at  Cahokia.  Hubbard  accompanied  him  on  the  voyage. 
About  November  20,  they  started  back,  distributing  various  por- 
tions of  the  cargo  at  the  posts  along  the  river.  Hubbard  reached 
his  station  at  the  mouth  of  the  Bureau  river  about  the  middle  of 
December  and  was  given  final  instructions  concerning  the  keeping 
of  .his  accounts.  "The  accounts,"  he  says,  "had  heretofore  been 
kept  in  hieroglyphics  by  Beebeau  [Bibeau],  my  ignorant  master, 
who  proved  to  be  sickly,  cross,  and  petulant.  He  spent  the 
greater  part  of  his  time  in  bed,  attended  by  a  fat,  dirty  Indian 
woman,  a  doctress,  who  made  and  administered  various  decoc- 
tions to  him."42  The  cabin  in  which  Hubbard  spent  the  winter 
was  of  logs  and  very  much  resembled  the  cabin  of  the  pioneer 
settler.  The  duties  of  the  young  clerk  were  to  keep  the  books 
and  to  be  present  when  sales  were  made  for  furs  or  when  credit 
was  to  be  given.  Leisure  time  was  spent  in  hunting,  trapping, 
making  oars  and  paddles,  chatting  and  joking  with  the  men  at 
the  post,  and  making  ready  for  departure  in  the  spring.  During 
the  winter,  Hubbard  made  two  trading  excursions  into  the  inte- 
rior, one  to  the  mouth  of  the  Rock  river,  and  the  other  to  the 
Wabash,  the  latter  being  particularly  successful. 

Early  in  March,  orders  were  received  from  Deschamps  to 
have  everything  in  readiness  to  start  for  Mackinac  on  the  twen- 
tieth. In  the  forenoon  of  the  day  set,  writes  Hubbard,  "we 

"Hubbard,  Incidents  and  Events,  49. 


THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE  35 

heard  in  the  distance  the  sound  of  the  familiar  boat-song  and 
recognized  the  rich  tones  of  Mr.  Deschamps'  voice,  and  we 
knew  the  'Brigade'  was  coming.  We  all  ran  to  the  landing  and 
soon  saw  Mr.  Deschamps'  boat  rounding  the  point  about  a  mile 
below;  his  ensign  floating  in  the  breeze.  We  shouted  with  joy 
at  their  arrival  and  gave  them  a  hearty  welcome."43  On  the  fol- 
lowing morning,  the  brigade,  consisting  of  thirteen  boats,  started 
on  the  long  return  voyage  to  Mackinac.  The  same  route  was 
followed  as  on  the  outward  trip,  and  the  destination  was  reached 
without  mishap  about  the  middle  of  May,  the  brigade  being 
among  the  first  to  arrive  from  the  Indian  country.  Thus  was 
finished  one  cycle  in  the  life  of  an  Illinois  fur  trader. 

"Hubbard,  Incidents  and  Events. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   PUBLIC   LANDS 

No  more  important  and  interesting  story 
can  be  found  in  the  annals  of  the  human  race 
than  that  of  the  progress  of  settlement  across 
the  North  American  continent, — the  transfor- 
mation of  successive  areas  of  wilderness  into 
highly  organized  agricultural  and  industrial 
communities.     The  significance  of  this  phase 
of  American  history  has  been  widely 
recognized   in    recent   years,    and   the 
region  undergoing  this  transformation 
at  any  particular  period  has  come  to 
be  known  as  the  frontier.    The  process 
is  a  long  one,  however,  with  many  diff-_j 
erent  stages  that  appear  simultaneously  A  TRAPPER 

in  different  areas  so  that  the  frontier  at        [From  Hail,  Forty  Etchings, 

.      ,      ,  .  ,      ,     ,         P       owned   by   Illinois   State   Histor- 

any  given  time  includes  a  wide  belt  of     icai  Library] 
territory   whose   boundaries    shade 

away  on  one  side  into  the  wilderness,  on  the  other  into  civiliza- 
tion. Using  the  term  as  here  defined,  the  whole  of  Illinois  can 
be  said  to  have  been  frontier  country  in  1818.  The  northern  part 
of  the  state  had  passed  through  the  stage  of  the  explorer's 
frontier  and  represented  the  frontier  of  both  the  Indian  trader 
and  the  military  post,  while  the  southern  part  had  emerged  into 
the  frontier  of  the  pioneer  settler. 

The  expression  "frontier"  may  also  be  used  in  another  but 
closely  allied  sense,  as  connoting  the  extreme  limit  of  progress 
of  some  phase  of  the  movement.  Thus  the  frontier  of  explora- 
tion is  the  line  between  the  territory  which  has  been  visited  by 
explorers  and  that  which  has  not,  and  similarly  there  are  fron- 
tiers of  Indian  land  cessions,  government  surveys,  land  sales, 

(36) 


THE  PUBLIC  LANDS  37 

and  actual  settlement.  The  fact  that  the  lines  of  several  of  these 
frontiers  run  through  the  Illinois  of  1818  adds  interest  to  a  study 
of  the  region  at  that  time.  Progress  along  some  of  these  lines 
was  always  irregular,  however;  and  the  frontier  in  such  cases 
can  be  indicated  only  approximately,  by  drawing  a  line  to  connect 
up  the  extreme  points.  Considering  the  nation  as  a  whole,  these 
frontiers  were  in  the  main,  north  and  south  lines;  but  various 
factors,  principally  geographical,  resulted  in  their  running  in  Illi- 
nois from  east  to  west  across  the  state. 

The  southern  limit  of  the  Indian  country  in  Illinois  in  1818 
was  a  line  drawn  east  from  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  river  to  a 
point  about  ten  miles  west  of  the  Wabash  and  then  northward 
bearing  slightly  to  the  east  to  the  Vermilion  river.  The  location 
of  this  line  was  determined  by  a  series  of  treaties  between  the 
United  States  and  the  various  Indian  tribes.  By  a  treaty  nego- 
tiated at  Vincennes  in  1803,  the  Kaskaskia  surrendered  to  the 
United  States  all  their  claims  to  land  in  Illinois  covering  an 
immense  tract  stretching  from  the  Mississippi  on  the  west  to  the 
divide  between  the  Kaskaskia  and  the  Wabash  on  the  east,  and 
from  the  Ohio  on  the  south,  northward  to  a  line  running  in  a 
northeasterly  direction  from  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  river. 
Previous  to  this  the  United  States  had  secured,  at  the  treaty  of 
Greenville  of  1795,  which  was  participated  in  by  most  of  the 
tribes  of  the  northwest,  a  recognition  of  grants  made  by  the 
Indians  during  the  French  and  British  periods  of  a  tract  of  land 
about  Vincennes,  part  of  which  lay  west  of  the  Wabash.  In 
1803  the  limits  of  this  grant  were  defined  by  another  treaty  at 
Fort  Wayne.  Two  years  later  the  small  tribe  of  the  Piankashaw 
ceded  to  the  United  States  their  claims  to  the  land  between  the 
Kaskaskia  cession  on  the  west  and  the  Wabash  river  and  Vin- 
cennes tract  on  the  east,  extending  north  a  short  distance  beyond 
the  thirty-ninth  parallel.44 

"The  cessions  are  listed  chronologically,  with  the  essential  data,  and  ex- 
cellent colored  maps,  in  Royce,  "Indian  Land  Cessions"  in  Bureau  of  Amer- 
ican Ethnology,  Eighteenth  Annual  Report,  pt.  2.  The  treaties  can  be  found 
in  full  in  Kapper,  Indian  Affairs,  Laws,  and  Treaties,  vol.  2.  The  two  volumes 
of  American  State  Papers,  Indian  Affairs  contain  many  documents  relating 
to  the  negotiations. 


38  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

In  1809  a  narrow  strip  of  land  along  the  boundary  between 
Illinois  and  Indiana,  stretching  from  the  Vincennes  tract  to  the 
Vermilion  river,  was  acquired  by  treaties  negotiated  by  Governor 
William  Henry  Harrison  with  various  tribes  of  Illinois  and  In- 
diana Indians,  including  the  Potawatomi  and  Kickapoo.  The 
purpose  of  this  cession  was  to  open  the  way  for  the  advance  of 
settlement  up  the  Wabash  river.  When  the  Illinois  tribes  had 
been  driven  out  from  northern  and  central  Illinois,  the  territory 
had  been  occupied  by  a  stream  of  northern  tribes,  the  Sauk  and 
Fox,  Kickapoo,  Winnebago,  and  Potawatomi.  Mingled  with  the 
latter  were  also  fragments  of  the  Ottawa  and  Chippewa.  New- 
comers in  the  region,  these  various  tribes  had  illy  defined  hold- 
ings, and  a  large  number  of  overlapping  cessions  had  to  be  se- 
cured before  their  claims  were  extinguished.  In  1804  a  treaty 
was  made  with  certain  members  of  the  allied  Sauk  and  Fox  tribes 
by  which  the  United  States  claimed  to  have  acquired  from  these 
tribes  the  vast  stretch  of  country  lying  between  the  Mississippi 
on  the  west  and  the  Illinois  and  Fox  rivers  on  the  east  and 
extending  northward  into  what  is  now  Wisconsin.  The  validity 
of  this  cession  was  denied  by  the  Indians,  however,  on  the  ground 
that  it  was  made  by  men  who  had  no  authority  to  represent  the 
tribes;  and  in  1815  and  1816  when  peace  was  made  with  the 
Sauk  and  Fox  respectively,  after  the  war  of  1812,  the  United 
States  secured  confirmations  of  this  grant.  The  Indians  retained 
the  privilege  of  living  and  hunting  on  the  land  so  long  as  it 
remained  the  property  of  the  government.  The  region  between 
the  Mississippi  and  Illinois  rivers  having  been  selected  for  mili- 
tary bounty  land,  the  United  States  was  desirous  of  perfecting 
its  title  in  order  that  the  surveys  might  proceed.  For  this  pur- 
pose it  was  necessary  to  secure  a  relinquishment  from  the  asso- 
ciated Potawatomi,  Ottawa,  and  Chippewa.  By  a  treaty  nego- 
tiated at  St.  Louis  in  August,  i8i6,45  these  tribes  gave  up  their 
claims  to  the  Sauk  and  Fox  cession  south  of  a  line  drawn  due 
west  from  the  southern  extremity  of  Lake  Michigan  to  the 

"Such  tracts,  not  to  "exceed  the  quantity  that  would  be  contained  in  five 
leagues  square"  as  the  president  might  reserve,  were  excepted.  It  was  ex- 
pected that  these  would  be  so  located  as  to  include  the  Galena  lead  mines. 
See  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  13 :286. 


THE  PUBLIC  LANDS  39 

Mississippi  river,  while  the  United  States  in  turn  relinquished  to 
them  its  claim  to  the  part  of  the  cession  lying  north  of  that  line. 
By  the  same  treaty,  these  Indians  also  ceded  a  strip  about  ten 
miles  wide  from  the  Fox  river  to  the  Kankakee  along  the  north 
side  of  the  Illinois  and  about  twenty  miles  wide  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Kankakee  on  both  sides  of  the  Desplaines  river  and  the 
portage  to  Lake  Michigan.  The  purpose  of  this  cession  was  to 
make  possible  the  construction  of  a  canal  from  Lake  Michigan  to 
the  Illinois  river,  and  the  Indians  were  allowed  to  continue  to 
hunt  and  fish  on  the  ceded  land. 

The  title  of  the  United  States  to  the  military  tract  having  been 
cleared  up,  it  was  expected  that  settlement  would  follow  rapidly, 
and  the  desirability  of  securing  a  cession  of  the  area  between 
that  tract  and  the  Kaskaskia  cession  of  1803  was  realized.  In 
1817  commissioners  were  appointed  and  instructions  issued,  and 
on  September  25,  1818,  representatives  of  all  the  remnants  of 
the  Illinois  tribes  met  Governor  Edwards  and  Auguste  Chouteau, 
United  States  commissioners,  at  Edwardsville  and  agreed  to  a 
treaty.  The  remnant  of  the  Peoria  had  not  been  a  party  to  the 
treaty  of  1803,  and  so,  in  order  to  quiet  any  claim  which  they 
might  have,  the  cession  here  made  included  the  whole  of  the 
earlier  cession  as  well  as  all  the  land  beyond  that  cession  and 
south  of  the  Illinois  and  Kankakee  rivers.  A  week  later  the 
Potawatomi  ceded  their  claim  to  a  tract  northwest  of  the 
Wabash,  lying  mostly  in  Indiana  but  including  a  small  triangle 
in  Illinois  between  the  Vermilion  and  the  state  line.  Neither  of 
these  treaties,  however,  gave  the  United  States  undisputed  claim 
to  any  additional  territory  in  Illinois,  for  the  Kickapoo,  a  numer- 
ous and  powerful  tribe,  for  many  years  claimed  by  right  of  con- 
quest and  possession  the  whole  of  central  Illinois  including  not 
only  all  the  new  area  covered  by  the  treaty  of  1818  but  also  all 
the  original  Kaskaskia  cession  and  the  Piankashaw  cession  north 
of  an  east  and  west  line  through  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  river. 
Not  until  July  30,  1819,  were  the  Kickapoo  induced  to  give  up 
their  claim  and  to  agree  to  move  west  of  the  Mississippi.  By  this 
cession  of  1819  the  land  claimed  by  Indians  in  Illinois  was 
reduced  to  the  region  north  of  the  canal  cession  and  of  an  east 


40  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

and  west  line  through  the  southern  extremity  of  Lake  Michigan, 
and  a  smaller  tract  along  the  Indiana  line  extending  south  from 
the  canal  cession  and  the  Kankakee  river  to  the  Vermilion.  Not 
until  the  years  1829,  1832,  and  1833,  were  these  claims  given 
up  by  the  Potawatomi,  Ottawa,  Chippewa,  and  Winnebago. 

When  Illinois  was  admitted  to  the  union  in  November,  1818, 
therefore,  the  land  in  the  state  upon  which  all  Indian  claims  had 
been  extinguished,  or,  more  accurately,  of  which  no  further  ces- 
sions were  made,  lay  in  two  detached  areas.  The  first  included 
all  south  of  the  east  and  west  line  through  the  mouth  of  the 
Illinois  and  also  a  narrow  strip  along  the  eastern  border  of  the 
state  extending  as  far  north  as  the  Vermilion  river;  the  second 
consisted  of  the  military  tract  and  the  strip  connecting  it  with 
Lake  Michigan. 

After  the  Indian  title  to  the  land  was  extinguished,  it  was 
government  land,  and  the  first  step  in  the  transition  to  private 
property  was  its  survey  into  the  familiar  rectangular  townships 
and  sections.  By  an  act  of  1804  the  surveyor-general  in  charge 
of  this  work  in  the  northwest  was  authorized  to  arrange  for  the 
survey  of  all  the  land  north  of  the  Ohio  and  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi to  which  the  Indian  titles  had  been  extinguished.46  The 
system  of  rectangular  surveys  based  on  a  principal  meridian  and 
a  base  line  had  already  been  worked  out  for  the  land  in  Ohio; 
but  the  tracts  to  be  surveyed  in  Indiana  territory  were  widely 
separated  from  this  land;  and  it  was  necessary  to  select  a  new 
point  of  departure.  For  the  second  principal  meridian,  there- 
fore, the  surveyor-general  established  a  line  running  due  north 
and  south  through  the  northeast  corner  of  the  Vincennes  tract, 
as  confirmed  by  the  Indians  in  1803 ;  and  this  meridian  governed 
most  of  the  surveys  in  Indiana  and  those  in  Illinois  east  of  a  line 
running  north  from  the  mouth  of  the  Wabash.  In  the  rest  of 
Illinois  south  of  the  Illinois  river  the  surveys  were  governed  by 
the  third  principal  meridian,  which  was  run  north  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio.  For  both  of  these  systems  an  east  and  west 
line,  selected  because  it  ran  through  the  westernmost  corner  of 
Clark's  grant  on  the  Ohio,  served  as  the  base  line.  Ranges 

.     "Statutes  at  Large,  2  -.277. 


Indian  Land  Cessions 

in  Illinois 

1818 


42  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

were  numbered  east  and  west  from  the  principal  meridians  and 
townships  north  and  south  from  the  base  line.  Each  township 
was  divided  into  thirty-six  sections  one  mile  square.47 

While  the  work  of  locating  the  main  township  lines  in  Illinois 
was  begun  in  1804,  the  same  year  in  which  the  surveys  were 
authorized,  the  principal  work  of  the  surveyors  for  a  number 
of  years  was  the  marking  out  of  the  numerous  private  claims. 
Not  until  about  1810  was  the  detail  work  in  the  townships  taken 
up  in  earnest,  and  then  it  progressed  so  slowly  that  much  was 
uncompleted  when  the  sales  began  in  1814.  With  the  close  of 
the  war  of  1812,  however,  the  surveys  proceeded  more  rapidly; 
in  1816  a  surveyor-general  for  Illinois  and  Missouri  territories 
was  appointed ;  and  at  the  close  of  the  territorial  period  most  of 
the  land  to  which  the  Indian  titles  had  been  extinguished  was 
surveyed.48  The  frontier  of  government  survey  then,  in  1818, 
started  on  the  Mississippi  near  Alton  and  ran  east  to  the  third 
principal  meridian,  then  south  thirty  miles  to  the  base  line,  east 
again  to  the  southwest  corner  of  the  Vincennes  tract  and  then 
northeastwardly  along  the  boundaries  of  that  tract  and  the  Har- 
rison purchase  to  the  Indiana  line  near  the  boundary  between  the 
present  Vermilion  and  Edgar  counties.  West  of  the  meridian, 
the  line  was  only  a  few  miles  below  the  frontier  of  Indian  ces- 
sions but  between  the  meridian  and  the  Vincennes  tract  the  two 
frontiers  were  thirty-six  miles  apart.49 

In  this  statement  of  the  extent  of  surveys,  the  triangle  be- 
tween the  Mississippi  and  the  Illinois  rivers  has  been  left  out  of 
consideration.  When  this  land  was  purchased  from  the  Indians 
in  1804,  it  was  apparently  intended  that  it  should  be  disposed 

"Treat,  National  Land  System,  ch.  8;  Niles'  Weekly  Register,  12:97-99; 
16  -.362. 

"Land  records  in  the  auditor's  office  at  Springfield ;  Statutes  at  Large, 
3  :32S- 

**  Additional  surveys  were  frequently  urged  by  the  land  officers  and  dur- 
ing the  late  summer  of  1818,  thirty-six  townships  above  township  5  north, 
and  west  of  the  third  principal  meridian  were  surveyed.  This  land  was  not 
offered  for  sale,  however,  until  1819,  and  the  line  described  above  is  for 
convenience  referred  tc  as  the  "frontier  line  of  survey  in  1818."  Orders 
were  issued  September  26,  1818,  for  the  survey  of  the  tract  north  of  the  base 
line  and  east  of  the  meridian,  and  the  work  was  completed  the  following 
year.  Land  records  in  the  auditor's  office,  Springfield ;  Intelligencer,  Octo- 
ber 21,  1818. 


THE  PUBLIC  LANDS  43 

of  in  the  ordinary  way,  for  an  act  of  congress  of  March  3,  1805 
attached  it  to  the  Kaskaskia  land  district.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  war  of  1812,  however,  congress,  by  the  act  of  May  6,  1812, 
directed  that  two  million  acres  of  this  land  with  like  quantities 
in  Michigan  and  Louisiana  territories  be  reserved  for  the  pur- 
pose of  satisfying  the  bounties  of  land  promised  to  soldiers, — 
1 60  acres  to  each, — by  acts  of  December  24,  1811,  and  January 
ii,  1812.  The  surveys  of  the  "military  tracts,"  as  they  were 
called,  were  delayed  by  Indian  hostilities  but  they  were  under 
way  in  the  summer  of  1815.  As  the  work  progressed,  the  offi- 
cials reached  the  conclusion  that  the  Michigan  lands  were  not 
suitable  for  the  purpose,  and  so  congress  was  induced  to  pass  the 
act  of  April  29,  1816,  substituting  for  the  Michigan  lands  an 
additional  million  and  a  half  acres  in  Illinois  and  an  additional 
half  million  acres  in  Missouri.50  This  increased  the  amount  of 
bounty  land  in  Illinois  to  three  and  a  half  million  acres,  and  car- 
ried the  northern  boundary  of  the  tract  to  a  line  from  the  Illinois 
river  at  the  mouth  of  the  Vermilion  due  west  to  the  Mississippi. 
As  this  region  was  wholly  separated  from  the  other  surveys  in 
Illinois,  it  was  necessary  to  run  a  fourth  principal  meridian,  fixed 
by  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  river,  with  a  base  line  run  due  west 
from  the  point  where  the  meridian  crossed  the  Illinois  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  site  of  Beardstown. 

The  survey  of  the  Illinois  bounty  lands  progressed  rapidly 
during  the  winter  of  1816-17;  and  on  September  25,  1817,  the 
commissioner  of  the  general  land  office  announced  that  the  sur- 
veys had  all  been  received  and  that  the  distribution  of  the  land 
by  lot  as  provided  by  law  would  begin  on  the  first  Monday  in 
October.  Warrants  had  been  issued  to  the  soldiers  entitled  to 
bounties,  or  to  their  heirs,  and  between  October  6,  1817  and 
January  28,  1819,  some  eighteen  thousand  of  these  warrants 
were  exchanged  at  the  general  land  office  for  patents  to  quarter 
sections  of  land  in  Illinois,  covering  the  greater  part  of  the  mili- 
tary tract.  While  the  warrants  were  non-transferable  there  was 
no  requirement  that  the  patentee  settle  upon  the  land  and  nothing 

'"American  State  Papers,  Public  Lands,  3:162-164;  Statutes  at  Large, 
2:344,  669,  672,  728;  3:332;  Niles'  Weekly  Register,  9:15. 


44  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

to  prevent  him  from  disposing  of  the  patent  as  soon  as  received. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  title  to  most  of  this  land  passed  at  once 
into  the  hands  of  eastern  speculators ;  and  no  settlement  appears 
to  have  resulted  from  this  wholesale  distribution  of  land  until 
after  the  admission  of  the  state  to  the  union.61 

The  regular  procedure  in  the  disposition  of  the  public  lands  at 
this  time  was  sale  by  the  government  without  distinction  between 
settlers  and  speculators.  To  facilitate  its  sale,  the  region  in 
which  the  land  was  located  was  divided  into  districts,  in  each  of 
which  was  established  a  local  land  office.  In  1818  there  were 
three  such  land  offices  with  their  corresponding  districts  wholly 
in  Illinois,  while  the  strip  along  the  eastern  border  north  of  the 
base  line  was  included  in  the  Vincennes  district,  the  greater  part 
of  which  lay  in  Indiana.  Land  offices  had  been  established  at 
Vincennes  and  Kaskaskia  as  early  as  1804;  but  their  only  work 
for  many  years  was  the  settlement  of  claims,  of  which  there 
were  a  large  number,  based  on  the  rights  of  the  old  French  inhab- 
itants and  on  various  donations  by  congress  to  the  early  settlers. 
It  was  obviously  desirable  that  the  validity  of  each  of  these  claims 
and  the  location  and  limits  of  those  which  stood  the  test  should 
be  determined  before  the  remainder  of  the  land  was  offered  for 
sale.  The  process  of  settlement  dragged  on  from  year  to  year, 
however,  and  it  was  not  until  1814,  only  four  years  before  the 
state  entered  the  union,  that  land  could  be  purchased  from  the 
government  in  Illinois.  In  the  meantime  another  land  office  had 
been  authorized  at  Shawneetown  in  1812,  the  boundary  between 
the  two  Illinois  districts  being  the  third  principal  meridian. 
With  the  beginning  of  sales  and  the  progress  of  the  surveys  the 
need  for  another  land  office  in  the  west,  north  of  Kaskaskia, 
was  apparent,  and  in  1816  one  was  established  at  Edwardsville 
for  the  sale  of  the  land  north  of  the  base  line  and  west  of  the 
meridian.  This  left  in  the  Kaskaskia  district  the  triangle  be- 
tween the  Mississippi,  the  meridian,  and  the  base  line.  While 
the  acts  establishing  the  Shawneetown  and  Edwardsville  districts 

""Lands  in  Illinois  to  soldiers  of  late  war,"  Executive  Documents,  26  con- 
gress, i  session,  no.  262;  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1910, 
p.  151;  Chicago  Historical  Society  manuscripts,  52:29,  177;  53:59;  Intelligen- 
cer, November  6,  1817. 


THE  FLATBOAT,  OHIO-BOAT,  OR  KENTUCKY-BOAT 

[From  A  History  of  Travel  in  America,  by  Seymour  Dunbar,  used  by  special 

permission  of  the  publishers.  The  Bobbs-Merrill  Company,  Indianapolis) 


[From  A  History  of  Trawl  in  America,  by  Seymour  Dunbar,  used  by  special 
permission  of  the  publishers,  The  Bobbs-Merrill  Company,  Indianapolis] 


THE  PUBLIC  LANDS  45 

had  not  definitely  fixed  their  northern  boundaries,  these  coin- 
cided in  practice  with  the  frontier  of  survey;  that  is,  the  base 
line  for  the  Shawneetown  district,  and  a  line  five  townships  or 
thirty  miles  farther  north  for  the  Edwardsville  district.  The 
Kaskaskia  district,  then,  contained  approximately  2,188,800 
acres  or  ninety-five  townships,  the  Shawneetown,  3,018,240  acres 
or  131  townships,  and  the  Edwardsville,  1,059,840  acres  or 
forty-six  townships.62 

The  system  of  public  land  sales  in  operation  in  Illinois  in  1818 
was  that  inaugurated  by  the  act  of  congress  of  May  10,  1800, 
with  some  modifications  by  later  acts.  The  land  was  first  offered 
at  public  sales  on  dates  fixed  by  proclamations  of  the  president ; 
all  land  for  which  two  dollars  or  more  an  acre  was  offered  was 
sold  to  the  highest  bidder.  After  land  had  once  been  offered 
at  public  sale  without  finding  a  purchaser,  it  could  then  be  bought 
at  private  sale  for  the  minimum  price.  Under  the  act  of  1800 
all  the  land  was  to  be  sold  in  half  sections  or  320  acre  tracts ;  but 
in  1804,  the  sale  of  quarter  sections  was  authorized  and  an  act 
of  1817  permitted  six  specified  sections  in  each  township  to  be 
sold  in  half-quarter  sections  or  eighty  acre  tracts.  Of  the  pur- 
chase money,  one-twentieth  had  to  be  paid  down  to  hold  the 
land,  and  enough  more  to  amount  to  twenty-five  per  cent  was  due 
in  forty  days.  The  remainder  was  due  in  three  equal  install- 
ments at  the  end  of  two,  three,  and  four  years  from  the  date  of 
entry.  No  interest  was  charged  if  payments  were  promptly 
made;  but  if  not,  they  drew  six  per  cent  from  the  date  of  sale. 
A  discount  of  eight  per  cent  was  allowed,  however,  on  all  advance 
payments,  which  reduced  the  minimum  cash  price  to  $1.64  an 
acre.  If  the  installments  were  not  all  paid  at  the  end  of  five 
years  from  the  date  of  entry,  the  land  reverted  to  the  United 
States  and  was  offered  at  public  auction.  Should  it  then  bring 
more  than  the  amount  still  due  with  interest,  the  balance  went  to 
the  original  purchaser.  As  a  rule,  in  Illinois,  only  a  small  pro- 
portion of  the  land  offered  was  disposed  of  at  the  public  sales, 
and  the  bulk  of  that  brought  only  the  minimum  price.  It  was 

"Statutes  at  Large,  2:277,  684;  3:323;  American  State  Papers,  Public 
Lands,  3  :3i2. 


46  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

possible,  therefore,  for  anyone  with  eighty  dollars  to  enter  a 
quarter  section  of  land,  "looking  to  the  land  to  reward  your  pains 
with  the  means  of  discharging  the  other  three-fourths  as  they 
become  due,"  as  Morris  Birkbeck  expressed  it.53  From  the 
records  of  land  sales  in  Illinois  it  appears  that  practically  all  the 
purchasers  took  advantage  of  the  credit  system  and  most  of  them 
bought  only  the  minimum  amount. 

The  protracted  delay  in  the  opening  of  the  land  sales  resulted 
in  a  situation  which  is  well  described  in  a  memorial  addressed  to 
congress  by  the  first  territorial  legislature  in  1812.  This  de- 
clared that,  "from  the  establishment  of  a  land  office  in  the  Terri- 
tory several  years  ago,  a  general  opinion  prevailed  that  the  public 
land  would  shortly  thereafter  be  offered  for  sale,  whereby  the 
great  majority  of  the  citizens  now  residing  in  the  Territory  were 
induced  to  move  into  it  and  settle  themselves,  hoping  that  they 
would  have  an  opportunity  of  purchasing  the  land  they  occupied 
before  they  had  made  such  ameliorations  thereon  as  would 
tempt  the  competition  of  avaricious  speculators,  in  which  reason- 
able expectation  they  have  been  hitherto  disappointed  in  conse- 
quence of  the  unexampled  postponement  of  the  sales  owing  to 
canses  [sic]  which  are  well  understood  and  which  it  is  unneces- 
sary to  detail ;  .  .  .  .  those  good  people  have  made  valuable  and 
permanent  improvements  on  the  land  they  thus  occupied  (at  the 
same  time  that  they  have  risked  their  lives  in  defending  it  against 
the  barbarous  savages  who  invaded  it),  but  are  now  in  danger  of 
losing  the  whole  value  of  their  labor  by  competition  at  the  sales 
or  by  the  holders  of  unlocated  claims  beirfg  permitted  to  locate 
on  their  improvements."54 

In  the  eyes  of  the  law  these  settlers  on  the  public  domain  were 
intruders  with  no  legal  rights  to  their  "improvements,"  and  con- 
gress had  in  the  past  usually  refused  to  recognize  the  claim  of 
such  settlers,  on  the  ground  that  to  do  so  would  encourage  illegal 
settlement.  The  sales  in  Illinois  had  been  so  long  postponed, 
however,  that  the  justice  of  some  measure  of  relief  was  obvious, 

"Birkbeck,  Letters  from  Illinois,  97;  Statutes  at  Large,  2:73,  277;  3:346; 
Niles'  Weekly  Register,  12  :gg. 

"James,  Territorial  Records,  109. 


THE  PUBLIC  LANDS 


47 


and  on  February  5,  1813,  congress  passed  an  act  of  great  im- 
portance to  the  people  of  that  territory.  By  the  terms  of  this 
measure,  settlers  who  had  "actually  inhabited  and  cultivated  a 
tract  of  land,  lying  in  either  of  the  districts  established  for  the 
sale  of  public  lands,  in  the  Illinois  territory"  before  the  passage 
of  the  act,  were  granted  a  preemption  right  to  not  more  than 
the  quarter  section  on  which  they  had  located ;  that  is,  they  were 
allowed  to  purchase  the  tract  at  the  minimum  price  at  any  time 
up  to  within  two  weeks  of  the  opening  of  the  public  sales  in  the 
district.  The  terms  were  the  same  as  for  other  purchases  at 
private  sales,  but  the  settler  was  relieved  from  any  danger  of 


[Original  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 

having  to  bid  against  others  for  the  land  which  he  had  occupied. 
About  a  year  later,  before  any  sales  had  been  made  in  the  Kas- 
kaskia  district,  congress  passed  another  act,  dated  April  16,  1814, 
which  enlarged  and  extended  preemption  rights  in  that  section  of 
the  territory.  The  greater  part  of  the  Kaskaskia  district,  includ- 
ing what  was  later  set  off  as  the  Edwardsville  district,  was 
designated  as  a  reserved  tract  in  which  the  numerous  confirmed 
unlocated  claims  must  be  located.  Settlers  within  this  tract  who 
had  established  themselves  before  February  5,  1813,  the  date 
of  the  original  preemption  law,  were  allowed  preemption  rights 


48  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

to  not  less  than  a  quarter  nor  more  than  a  whole  section,  appli- 
cation to  be  made  on  or  before  October  i,  1814.  Settlers  holding 
confirmed  unlocated  claims  were  allowed  to  use  them  as  pay- 
ments for  the  land  to  which  they  had  preemption  rights  while 
other  holders  of  such  claims  might  locate  them  within  the  tract 
between  October  I,  1814  and  May  i,  1815.  It  was  expected, 
apparently,  that  the  situation  would  thus  be  cleared  up  by  May  i, 
1815,  so  that  the  public  sales  could  take  place;  but  another  act 
of  February  27,  1815,  extended  the  time  for  preemptions  to 
May  i,  1816;  and  an  act  of  April  27,  1816,  made  a  further 
extension  in  certain  cases  to  October  i,  1816.  By  this  last  act, 
also,  holders  of  unlocated  confirmed  claims  were  allowed  to 
locate  them  in  the  tract  up  to  the  same  date.65 

These  various  acts  relating  to  preemption  rights  created  dis- 
tinctions in  different  parts  of  Illinois,  the  reasons  for  which  are 
not  apparent.  Thus  in  the  Shawneetown  district  those  who  had 
settled  on  the  land  before  February  5,  1813,  were  given  the 
preference  in  the  purchase  of  a  quarter  section  only,  while  within 
the  reserved  tract,  the  preference  was  extended  to  a  whole  sec- 
tion. Especial  provision  was  made  in  the  Kaskaskia  district, 
moreover,  for  settlers  on  fractional  sections;  but  the  law  was  so 
interpreted  as  to  allow  such  settlers  no  preemption  rights  in  the 
Shawneetown  district,  with  the  result  that  a  few  had  to  pay 
advanced  prices  for  their  lands  at  the  public  sales.  The  worst 
discrimination,  however,  was  with  reference  to  that  part  of 
Illinois  within  the  Vincennes  district.  The  act  of  1813  was  in- 
terpreted as  not  applying  to  this  tract  at  all  and  the  settlers 
there  were  left  to  compete  with  speculators  in  the  public  sales 
for  the  lands  on  which  they  had  made  improvements.  The  legis- 
lature of  Illinois  territory,  at  its  session  of  1816-17,  after  the 
sales  had  taken  place,  forwarded  to  congress  a  long  memorial 
devoted  to  proving  that  the  preemption  act  had  not  been  correctly 
interpreted  in  this  particular,  and  asking  for  some  measure  of 
redress  for  those  settlers  who  had  lost  their  land  or  had  been 
forced  to  pay  advanced  prices  for  it.  This  memorial,  together 
with  a  petition  from  the  settlers  themselves  drawn  up  in  1818, 

KStatutes  at  Large,  2:797;  3:125,  218;  Treat,  National  Land  System, 
382-385. 


A  CLEARING 

From  A  History  nf  Travel  in  America,  by  Seymour  Dunbar,  used  by  special 
permission  of  the  publishers,  The  Bobbs-Merrill  Company,  Indianapolis] 


LEAD-BEARING  ROCKS  AND  FURNACE  NEAR  GALENA 

[From  a  copy  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 


THE  PUBLIC  LANDS  49 

was  referred  and  re-referred  to  the  house  committee  on  public 
lands  until  finally  congress  passed  the  relief  act  of  May  n,  1820. 
By  this  act  all  settlers  who  would  have  been  entitled  to  preemp- 
tion rights,  had  the  act  been  interpreted  to  apply  to  the  part  of 
Vincennes  district  in  Illinois,  were  given  credit  certificates  for 
the  sums  above  the  minimum  price  which  they  had  paid;  or,  if 
they  had  not  purchased,  they  were  allowed  to  exercise  a  preemp- 
tion right  on  any  land  in  Illinois  which  might  be  surveyed  before 
September  i,  i82O.56 

The  first  government  sales  of  land  in  Illinois  took  place,  as 
has  already  been  stated,  in  1814.  During  the  year  ending  Sep- 
tember 30,  1814,  the  only  sales  were  8,837  acres  in  the  Shawnee- 
town  district;  these  were  all  made  to  settlers  in  accordance  with 
the  preemption  act  of  1813,  and  consequently  at  the  minimum 
price.  The  first  public  sale  in  the  territory  took  place  in  the 
same  district  in  October  of  1814  and  included  the  sale  of  town 
lots  in  Shawneetown,  which  had  been  laid  out  for  that  purpose 
by  the  government  surveyors  under  acts  of  April  30,  1810,  and 
March  28,  1814.  Only  a  part  of  the  land  in  the  district  could  be 
offered  at  this  sale  because  the  surveys  were  incomplete,  and 
only  a  little  over  fifty  thousand  acres  were  sold  in  the  district 
in  the  year  ending  September  30,  1815.  Sales  under  the  pre- 
emption acts  began  in  the  Kaskaskia  district  in  the  fall  of  1814, 
and  about  thirty  thousand  acres  were  disposed  of  during  the 
fiscal  year.  During  the  year  ending  September  30,  1816,  the 
sales  were  still  smaller,  amounting  to  less  than  thirty-four  thou- 
sand acres  in  the  Shawneetown  and  less  than  thirteen  thousand 
in  the  Kaskaskia  districts.  The  bulk  of  the  Shawneetown  sales 
must  have  been  of  land  which  had  been  offered  in  1814  and 
which  was  now  available  at  private  sales  at  the  minimum  price, 
while  at  Kaskaskia  land  could  still  be  purchased  only  by  pre- 
emptioners. 

The  largest  offerings  of  land  at  public  sales  in  Illinois,  prior 
to  the  admission  of  the  state  to  the  union,  took  place  in  October 
and  November,  1816,  when  sales  were  held  at  all  three  of  the 

'"Legislative  memorial  in  Intelligencer,  January  22,  1817 ;  petition  of  James 
McFarland  and  others,  November,  1818,  and  petition  of  inhabitants  of  Craw- 
ford countv.  December  25,  1818  in  House  Files;  Statutes  at  Large,  3:573. 


50 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


offices  in  tlie  territory.57  The  intention  was  that  the  government 
land  in  the  respective  districts,  not  hitherto  offered  and  not 
reserved  for  schools  or  other  special  purposes,  should  be  offered 
at  these  sales ;  but  the  officers  at  Kaskaskia  reported  that  certain 
townships  could  not  be  sold  because  descriptions  had  not  been 
received  from  the  surveyor-general,  while  certain  sections  in 
fifteen  townships  in  the  Shawneetown  district  were  not  actually 
offered  until  October,  1818.  Nineteen  townships  and  fractional 
townships,  comprising  about  two-thirds  of  the  part  of  the  Vin- 
cennes  district  in  Illinois,  were  offered  at  public  sale  in  Septem- 
ber of  the  same  year.  So  much  of  the  best  land  in  the  Kaskaskia 
and  Edwardsville  districts  had  been  covered  by  private  claims 
and  preemption  rights  that  only  small  amounts  were  disposed 
of  at  these  sales.  In  Edwardsville  the  bidding  could  not  have 
been  very  brisk  for  none  of  the  sixty  or  seventy  tracts  sold 
brought  more  than  the  minimum  price,  while  at  Kaskaskia  only 
five  or  six  tracts  which  were  located  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Ohio,  and  were  bought  up  by  town-site  speculators  sold  for 
an  advanced  price,  the  highest  being  five  dollars  an  acre.58  The 
significance  of  the  public  sales,  however,  lay  not  in  the  amounts 

87The  following  table  gives  the  acreage  of  land  sales  in  the  three  Illinois 
districts  for  the  periods  indicated,  with  amounts  of  reversions  deducted  from 
the  sales.  It  is  compiled  from  statistics  in  Reports  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  1:550;  2:68,  97,  135,  137,  157;  American  State  Papers,  Public 
Lands,  3  :3I2 ;  Executive  Documents,  16  congress,  2  session,  no.  8,  p.  19. 


Shawnee- 
town 

8,837 
51,735 
33,975 
67,084 


Kaskaskia 


Edwards- 
ville 


Total 


Years  ending 
Sept.  30 

1814    

1815    

1816    

1817    

1818    239,01 1 

1819    161,654 

Total    562,296 

Total  to  Sept.  30,  1818 400,642 

Est.  total  to  Dec.  31,  1818 440,000 

Area  of  districts   3,018,240 

Proportion  sold  Dec.  31,  1818       14^% 

See  also  Statutes  at  Large,  2:591;  3:113;  president's  proclamation,  April 
5,  in  land  records,  auditor's  office,  Springfield. 

"President's  proclamations  in  Intelligencer,  June  12,  1816;  August  5,  1818; 
Letter  Book  A,  109-111,  115,  and  land  record,  Palestine  district,  auditor's 
office,  Springfield ;  Intelligencer,  November  20,  1816 ;  House  Documents,  15 
congress,  2  session,  no.  46,  p.  6. 


31,005 

12,765 

78,508 

160,446 

124,303 

407,027 

282,724 

320,000 

2,188,800 

14/2% 


104,073 

193,259 

97,398 

394,730 

297,332 

320,000 

1,059840 

30% 


8,837 

82,740 

46,740 

249,665 

593,3i6 

383,355 

1,364,053 

980,698 

1,080,000 

6,266,880 

17% 


THE  PUBLIC  LANDS  51 

of  land  disposed  of  but  in  the  fact  that  after  they  were  over 
extensive  tracts  of  land  in  all  parts  of  Illinois  below  the  frontier 
line  of  survey  were  available  for  purchase  at  private  sale  at  the 
minimum  price. 

With  the  return  of  peace  on  the  frontier  after  the  war  of 
1812,  immigrants  poured  into  the  territory,  and  the  sales  in- 
creased by  leaps  and  bounds.  During  the  year  ending  Septem- 
ber 30,  1817,  almost  a  quarter  of  a  million  acres  of  land  were 
sold  in  the  three  districts  wholly  within  Illinois,  Edwardsville 
leading  with  over  a  hundred  thousand  acres.  This  was  nearly 
twice  as  much  as  had  been  sold  in  all  the  previous  years,  but  the 
amount  was  again  doubled  in  the  next  fiscal  year,  the  total  being 
nearly  six  hundred  thousand  acres.  This  time  the  Shawneetown 
district  led  with  about  two  hundred  and  forty  thousand  acres. 
The  fiscal  year  ending  September  30,  1819,  shows  a  falling  off 
in  the  total  sales  to  less  than  four  hundred  thousand  acres,  due 
in  part  to  the  fact  that  the  choicest  tracts  had  already  been 
selected,  and  in  part  to  the  financial  panic  of  1819.  The  total 
sales  of  public  land  in  these  districts  to  September  30,  1818, 
amounted  to  980,698  acres.  Approximately  the  sales  to  the  end 
of  1818  amounted  to  about  1,080,000  acres,  of  which  440,000 
were  in  the  Shawneetown,  320,000  in  the  Kaskaskia,  and  320,000 
in  the  Edwardsville  districts.  Thirty  per  cent  of  the  Edwards- 
ville district  had  been  sold  but  only  fourteen  and  a  half  per  cent 
of  the  Shawneetown  and  Kaskaskia  districts.  Taking  the  three 
districts  together,  only  about  seventeen  per  cent  of  the  available 
land  had  passed  out  of  the  possession  of  the  government.59 

The  actual  location  of  the  land  in  Illinois  which  had  become 
private  property  by  the  end  of  1818,  is  indicated  on  the  accom- 
panying map.60  From  this  it  appears  that  the  largest  solid  blocks 
of  private  holdings  were  in  the  present  Madison  and  St.  Clair 
counties.  In  the  American  bottom,  also,  stretching  along  the 
Mississippi  above  Kaskaskia,  practically  all  the  land  had  been 
taken  up.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  territory  a  tract  equivalent 

"See  table  in  note  57. 

"Compiled  from  records  in  the  auditor's  office  at  Springfield,  and  in  the 
general  land  office  in  Washington. 


U.  Of  ILL  U3. 


52  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

to  about  two  and  a  half  townships  had  been  entered  in  Edwards 
county,  where  the  English  settlement  was  located.  There  was 
a  smaller  block  in  the  neighborhood  of  Shawneetown,  and  along 
the  lower  Ohio  an  extensive  tract  had  been  purchased  by  firms 
of  speculators  who  hoped  that  great  commercial  cities  would 
spring  up  on  their  holdings.  The  map  brings  out  in  a  striking 
way  the  importance  of  streams  in  giving  value  to  land  in  their 
vicinity.  Along  the  Kaskaskia  river  and  its  tributaries,  as  far 
as  the  surveys  extended,  along  the  Big  Muddy  in  Jackson  county, 
and  the  Cache  in  Union  county,  extended  ribbons  of  purchased 
land.  On  the  eastern  side  of  the  state,  the  land  along  the  Saline 
river  was  all  in  the  United  States  reservation,  but  the  influence 
of  the  Little  Wabash  is  clearly  seen.  Another  factor  in  giving 
value  to  land  was  its  location  along  the  main  roads  which  crossed 
the  state.  Thus  the  lines  of  the  roads  from  Shawneetown  to 
Carlyle,  Shawneetown  to  Kaskaskia,  and  Golconda  to  Kaskaskia, 
are  clearly  indicated  by  the  holdings,  although  these  are  more 
broken  than  those  along  the  streams.  Between  these  roads  in 
the  interior  of  the  state  were  tracts  containing  ten  or  a  dozen 
townships  in  each  of  which  scarcely  a  single  section  of  land  had 
been  sold. 

Significant  as  is  the  distribution  of  purchased  land,  it  is  not 
a  definitive  index  of  the  progress  of  settlement  for  two  reasons; 
in  the  first  place  much  land  was  purchased  for  speculation  rather 
than  for  settlement,  and  in  the  second  place  many  settlers  lived 
on  land  which  still  belonged  to  the  government. 

Before  land  could  be  purchased  from  the  government,  the 
speculators  had  been  obliged  to  confine  their  operations  to  the 
field  of  private  claims;  but  many  of  the  original  French  and 
American  holders  of  these  claims  were  readily  induced  to  dis- 
pose of  them  to  the  more  enterprising  men  with  capital,  and  as 
a  result  thousands  of  acres  passed  into  the  possession  of  such 
men  as  John  Edgar  and  William  Morrison.  When  the  govern- 
ment land  sales  began,  speculators  were  always  on  hand  to  pick 
up  the  choice  tracts  which,  because  of  their  supposedly  favorable 
location,  were  expected  to  rise  in  value  rapidly.  As  has  already 
been  noted  much  of  the  land  along  the  lower  Ohio  was  pur- 


THE  PUBLIC  LANDS  53 

chased  in  large  tracts  by  firms  of  eastern  men.  The  resident 
speculators  wisely  devoted  themselves  largely  to  land  in  the 
Edwardsville  district  which  was  settling  up  rapidly,  while  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  territory,  Morris  Birkbeck  entered  26,400 
acres  of  land  in  Edwards  county  during  1817  and  1818.  Birk- 
beck's  purchases  were  made  in  part  to  secure  the  land  for  the 
English  immigrants  whom  he  was  inducing  to  come  to  Illinois, 
but  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  he  and  the  other  leaders  in  the 
English  settlement  hoped  for  great  personal  returns  from  the 
rise  in  value  of  the  land.  The  effects  on  settlement  of  the  exten- 
sive purchase  of  land  by  speculators  were  very  great.  Desirable 
tracts  in  the  neighborhood  of  settlements  were  held  at  prices  too 
high  for  most  of  the  immigrants  to  pay,  and  consequently  they 
were  forced  to  go  farther  afield  or  take  up  less  desirable  land. 
The  result  of  this  and  of  the  uniform  price  of  government  land, 
regardless  of  quality,  was  a  wide  spread  scattering  of  the 
settlers  over  a  vast  extent  of  territory  instead  of  an  orderly  pro- 
gression along  a  definite  frontier.61 

The  occupation  of  the  public  lands  by  settlers  long  before 
they  could  purchase  and  the  measures  which  were  taken  for 
their  relief  have  already  been  noted.  The  preemption  acts  did 
not  entirely  solve  the  problem,  however,  for  no  provision  was 
made  for  those  who  settled  after  February  5,  1813;  and  many 
who  had  established  themselves  before  that  were  too  poor  to 
exercise  their  preemption  rights.  Nor  were  these  people  inclined 
to  surrender  the  land  when  it  was  purchased  by  others.  The 
situation  is  well  described  in  a  letter  written  by  the  register 
of  the  Shawneetown  land  office  to  his  superior  in  Washington 
in  1815.  "Several  persons,"  he  wrote,  "have  called  on  me  as 
the  public  Agent,  to  give  them  peaceable  possession  of  their  Lands 
— persons  who  are  residing  on  them  now,  &  were  previously 
to  the  sale,  refuse  .to  give  them  up — a[n]d  the  rightfull  owner 
is  kept  out  of  possession,  who  thinks  his  case  a  very  hard  one 
to  be  compelled  after  paying  the  Government  for  a  tract  of  land 
to  be  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  commencing  a  suit  at  Law  to 

"Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels,  11:277;  Birkbeck,  Letters  from  Illi- 
nois, 37,  81,  85,  120;  Dana,  Geographical  Sketches,  143;  Intelligencer,  Novem- 
ber 20,  1816. 


54  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

obtain  his  just  right — There  are  nearly  a  thousand  improved 
places  in  this  district  that  are  not  located,  and  if  the  Government 
does  not  adopt  some  energetic  measures  to  nip  this  conduct  in 
the  bud  it  will  retard  the  Sale  of  all  those  places  which  are  or 
may  be  improved  hereafter  I  hope  this  subject  will  present 
itself  forcibly  to  your  mind  as  it  will  materially  affect  the  public 
sales."62  The  situation  was  so  serious  that  the  matter  was  taken 
up  with  the  secretary  of  state,  and  the  president  issued  a  proc- 
lamation directing  that  after  a  certain  day  in  March,  1816,  all 
squatters  on  the  public  lands  should  be  removed.  Against  the 
execution  of  this  proclamation,  Benjamin  Stephenson,  the  dele- 
gate from  Illinois  territory,  protested  vigorously.  "Should  this 
order  be  inforced,"  he  wrote  to  the  secretary  of  state,  "it  [wi]ll 

be  distressing  to  many  Citizens  and  not  beneficial 

to  the  interest  of  the  government,  My  object  in  addressing  you, 
is,  to  solicit  that  a  time  may  be  set  for  the  removal  of  the  above 
settlers  one  or  two  months  after  they  shall  have  an  oppertunity 
of  purchasing  the  land  on  which  they  have  setted  and  made 
improvements."  The  marshal  of  Illinois  territory  actually  made 
preparations  to  remove  the  intruders;  but  the  secretary  of  the 
treasury  wrote  him  on  May  n,  1816,  recommending  "a  prudent 
and  conciliatory  course ;"  and  nothing  seems  to  have  been  accom- 
plished. Two  months  earlier  congress  had  passed  an  act  author- 
izing the  land  officers  to  issue  to  settlers  on  unsold  public  lands 
permits  to  remain  as  tenants  at  will  on  condition  of  their  agree- 
ing to  "give  quiet  possession"  whenever  required  to  do  so;  but 
very  few  applications  for  such  permits  appear  to  have  been 
received.68 

The  situation  in  Illinois  at  this  time  is  typical  of  the  history 
of  the  American  frontier.  Although  large  quantities  of  govern- 
ment land  were  on  the  market,  the  attraction  of  the  wilderness 
and  the  desire  to  secure  the  choicest  locations  regularly  led  to 

"Extract  from  Sloo  to  Meigs,  March  II,  1815,  in  United  States  State 
Department,  Bureau  of  Indexes  and  Archives,  "Miscellaneous  Letters." 

"Stephenson  to  Monroe,  January  19,  1816;  Dallas  to  Fouke,  May  n, 
1816;  Fouke  to  Pope,  January  5,  1817;  all  in  United  States  State  Department, 
Bureau  of  Indexes  and  Archives,  "Miscellaneous  Letters" ;  Statutes  at  Large, 
3 1260 ;  Intelligencer,  June  5,  1816 ;  correspondence  in  auditor's  office,  Spring- 
field. 


THE  PUBLIC  LANDS  55 

settlement  in  advance  of  the  purchase  of  the  land;  and  this  was 
true  regardless  of  whether  or  not  the  land  sales  were  delayed. 
Often,  indeed,  the  frontier  line  of  settlement  was  beyond  the 
line  of  survey  and  even  beyond  that  of  the  Indian  cessions. 


CHAPTER  III 

EXTENT    OF    SETTLEMENT 

The  historian  rarely  has  the  aid  of  written  records  when  he 
undertakes  to  determine  the  spread  of  population  in  a  primitive 
region.  In  America,  for  instance,  it  is  only  with  great  difficulty 
that  the  location  of  the  aborigines  can  be  traced,  because  they 
migrated  frequently  and  left  very  few  records  of  their  stay  in  any 
district.  With  the  advent  of  Europeans,  however,  the  problem 
assumes  a  very  different  aspect.  From  the  first,  their  settle- 
ments had  a  permanency  beyond  the  dreams  of  the  savages ;  and 
the  settlers,  products  of  a  mature  civilization,  kept  definite 
written  records  of  their  activities.  Instead  of  an  evolution  from 
a  nebulous  origin  in  prehistoric  times,  therefore,  the  settlement 
of  the  white  race  in  America  has  been  a  well  documented  and 
comparatively  orderly  progress,  like  the  advance  of  multitudi- 
nous chessmen  across  a  gigantic  board. 

Just  how  far  the  game  had  progressed  into  Illinois  by  the 
year  in  which  the  state  was  admitted  to  the  union  it  is  possible 
to  determine  with  considerable  accuracy  from  the  records  avail- 
able. In  1818  the  legislature  of  the  territory  ordered  a  census 
to  be  taken,  in  order  to  substantiate  the  claim  that  the  population 
was  large  enough  to  be  organized  as  a  state.  The  original  law 
required  the  enumeration  to  be  made  between  April  I  and  June 
i,  but  a  later  act  allowed  the  commissioners  to  draw  up  supple- 
mentary schedules  listing  settlers  who  came  in  after  June  i. 
That  there  was  some  padding  of  the  lists  is  certain,  but  the 
greater  part  of  this  was  probably  in  the  supplementary  schedules ; 
most  of  these  appear  to  have  been  lost.64 

"For  an  abstract  of  the  census  of  1818,  see  appendix,  p.  318. 

(56) 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  57 

Commissioners  appointed  for  the  purpose  canvassed  each  of 
the  fifteen  counties,  recording  the  names  of  the  heads  of  families 
and  the  number  of  individuals  in  each  household.  The  commis- 
sioner for  Franklin  county  was  the  only  one  who  noted  loca- 
tions of  settlers;  but  since  as  a  rule  the  other  commissioners 
appear  to  have  gone  through  the  county  from  settlement  to  set- 
tlement, entering  the  information  in  the  order  in  which  they 
received  it,  the  arrangement  of  names  furnishes  a  good  clew; 
having  learned  from  county  histories  and  similar  sources  the 
location  of  a  few  of  the  settlers,  it  is  easy  to  fix,  at  least  roughly, 
the  location  of  the  rest.65  It  is  chiefly  on  the  basis  of  the  results 
thus  worked  out  that  the  accompanying  map  of  settlement  has 
been  constructed.66 

The  frontier  of  extreme  settlement,  it  will  be  noted,  may  be 
roughly  indicated  by  a  line  drawn  from  outpost  to  outpost  across 
the  state.  Starting  at  the  Indiana  boundary  in  the  southeastern 
part  of  Edgar  county,  the  line  runs  in  a  southwestern  direction 
to  the  northeastern  corner  of  Jasper  county,  then  drops  down 
to  the  Vincennes  road,  and  follows  that  west  to  the  third  prin- 
cipal meridian.  From  there  it  curves  back  to  take  in  the  settle- 
ments on  the  Kaskaskia  in  northern  Fayette  county,  crosses 
Hurricane  creek  in  the  southeastern  part  of  Montgomery,  and 
Shoal  creek  in  the  vicinity  of  Hillsboro,  and  then  drops  back 
to  the  settlements  on  Silver  creek  in  northern  Madison  county. 
Curving  northward  again  to  the  settlements  of  Macoupin  county, 
it  crosses  the  northeastern  corner  of  Jersey,  takes  in  the  south- 
western part  of  Greene,  and  crosses  Calhoun  to  the  Mississippi 
river.  Doubtless  there  were  unrecorded  establishments  above 
this  line  in  some  places  but  in  general  it  can  be  taken  to  indicate 
the  extreme  limit  of  the  progress  of  settlement  in  1818.  Not 
all  the  region  below  the  line,  however,  can  be  considered  as 
settled  territory.  "In  the  year  1818,"  writes  Ford,  "the  settled 

"This  procedure  has  been  impossible  in  the  case  of  St.  Clair  and  Craw- 
ford counties,  the  names  for  which  are  arranged  alphabetically.  The  sched- 
ules for  Randolph  and  the  principal  part  of  Edwards  have  not  been  found. 

"No  attempt  has  been  made  to  give  specific  references  to  the  many  county 
histories  and  biographical  collections  which  have  been  consulted.  A  bibliogra- 
phy of  these  and  a  discussion  of  their  value  will  be  found  in  Buck,  Travel  and 
Description  of  Illinois,  253-382. 


58  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

part  of  the  State  extended  a  little  north  of  Edwardsville  and 
Alton;  south,  along  the  Mississippi  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio; 
east,  in  the  direction  of  Carlysle  to  the  Wabash;  and  down  the 
Wabash  and  the  Ohio,  to  the  mouth  of  the  last-named  river. 
But  there  was  yet  a  very  large  unsettled  wilderness  tract  of 
country,  within  these  boundaries,  lying  between  the  Kaskaskia 
river  and  the  Wabash;  and  between  the  Kaskaskia  and  the 
Ohio,  of  three  days'  journey  across  it."67 

From  a  study  of  the  census  schedules,  it  appears  that  what 
may  properly  be  termed  the  settled  area  lay  in  two  widely  sepa- 
rated tracts.  The  larger  of  these  was  in  the  west  and  consisted 
of  the  triangle  bounded  by  the  Mississippi  and  Kaskaskia  rivers, 
Shoal  creek,  and  the  frontier  line  of  survey.  In  this  region  of 
less  than  two  thousand  square  miles  dwelt  about  fifteen  thousand 
people,  more  than  a  third  of  the  population  of  the  state,  and 
the  average  density  was  not  far  from  eight  to  the  square  mile. 
The  other  settled  district  lay  along  the  Wabash  river  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  state,  extending  from  the  site  of  York  in 
southeastern  Clark  county  to  Saline  creek  and  having  an  aver- 
age width  of  about  fifteen  miles.  Nearly  another  third  of  the 
population,  approximately  twelve  thousand,  dwelt  in  this  region 
of  some  fifteen  hundred  square  miles,  thus  giving  it  a  density 
about  equal  to  that  of  the  settled  area  in  the  west.  Between 
these  two  districts  and  north  of  the  one  on  the  Mississippi  lived 
the  remaining  third  of  the  inhabitants  in  an  immense  area  of 
at  least  seven  thousand  square  miles.  The  density  of  the  popula- 
tion in  this  region  averaged  less  than  two  to  the  square  mile,  the 
number  used  by  the  United  States  census  bureau  in  delimiting 
the  frontier  of  settlement. 

Despite  the  multitude  of  town-site  projects  in  the  state,  there 
were  only  two  places  of  sufficient  size  and  importance  to  justify 
their  being  termed  towns — Kaskaskia,  the  capital,  and  Shawnee- 
town,  the  port  of  entry.  These  were  located  at  the  southern 
ends  of  the  western  and  eastern  settled  districts,  respectively, 
and  each  had  an  office  for  the  sale  of  public  lands.  Edwards- 
ville, the  third  land  office  town,  though  destined  to  grow  rapidly 

"Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  38. 


JO  DAVIESS  1   STtPl  ENSON 


Illinois  in  1818 

Extent  of  settlement,  counties,  gen 

eral  location  of  Indian  tribes, 

and  principal  roads 

Counties  in  1818 BON D 

Modern  counties BOND 

County  lines  in  1818 
Modern  county  lines 
Roads  in  1818 

County  seals  in  1818 o 

Populations  of  50  or   major 


fractions  thereof  and  small 
distinct  settlements  . . 


60  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

in  the  next  few  years,  was  a  mere  village  in  1818,  while  Cahokia, 
the  former  rival  of  Kaskaskia,  was  declining  in  population.  Each 
of  the  fifteen  counties,  with  the  exception  of  Franklin,  had  a 
county  seat;  but  these  towns  as  a  rule  contained  little  more  than 
a  courthouse,  jail,  and  tavern,  and  possibly  a  general  store. 
That  they  depended  for  their  existence  on  the  county  business  is 
evident  from  the  number  of  them  which  failed  to  survive  the 
loss  of  their  position  as  county  seat :  Palmyra,  Brownsville,  Cov- 
ington,  Perryville,  and  even  Kaskaskia,  are  now  to  be  found 
only  in  the  records  of  the  past. 

The  distribution  of  the  people  in  1818  can  be  indicated  more 
fully  by  a  survey  of  the  population,  location  of  settlements,  and 
towns  and  villages  in  each  of  the  fifteen  counties. 

The  largest  county  in  Illinois  in  1818  was  Crawford,  which 
included  the  whole  northeastern  part  of  the  state  east  of  the 
third  principal  meridian  and  north  of  a  line  cutting  across  the 
modern  Marion,  Clay,  Richland,  and  Lawrence  counties  eighteen 
miles  above  the  base  line,  to  the  Embarras  river  and  down  that 
stream  to  the  Wabash.  In  this  immense  area  of  over  twenty 
thousand  square  miles  there  were  living  2,839  people,  according 
to  the  final  report  of  the  census  of  1818.  The  figures  do  not 
quite  agree,  however,  with  returns  on  the  schedules.  For  the 
first  census,  these  show  a  population  of  2,069  °f  whom  78 
were  free  negroes  and  20  servants  or  slaves.  There  were  397 
families  averaging  about  five  members  each.  For  the  supple- 
mentary census  the  commissioner  was  able  to  list  121  additional 
families  with  877  souls.  The  two  schedules  together,  therefore, 
show  a  total  population  of  2,946.  The  greater  part  of  the  Craw- 
ford county  of  1818  was  still  Indian  land,  and  the  only  part  in 
which  the  land  had  been  surveyed  and  offered  for  sale  was  a 
strip  in  the  southeast  averaging  about  ten  miles  in  width  which 
extended  along  the  Wabash  and  the  eastern  boundary  of  the 
state  to  near  the  southern  boundary  of  Vermilion  county.  In 
this  restricted  region  of  about  seven  hundred  square  miles  lived 
nearly  all  of  the  population,  making  an  average  density  of  about 
four  to  the  square  mile. 

Beyond  the  survey,  there  was  at  least  one  settler  in  the  south- 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  61 

east  corner  of  Jasper  county,  and  there  may  have  been  others 
who  had  pushed  into  the  interior  from  the  east.  On  the  opposite 
side  of  the  county,  in  what  is  now  Fayette,  a  few  settlers  are 
said  to  have  been  located  on  the  Kaskaskia  above  the  site  of 
Vandalia,  but  they  were  too  far  away  to  be  listed  by  the  census 
commissioner.  Within  the  surveyed  tract  settlers  had  pushed 
as  far  north  as  the  present  Edgar  county,  where  about  a  dozen 
families  were  established  in  Hunter  and  Stratton  townships.  In 
Clark  county  settlement  was  confined  principally  to  the  three 
eastern  townships  and  was  densest  in  the  southeastern  parts. 
Similarly  in  the  modern  Crawford,  practically  all  the  settlers 
whose  location  can  be  determined  were  in  the  three  townships 
along  the  Wabash  with  considerable  concentration  in  La  Motte, 


A  WOODEN  BEAM  PLOW 
[Original  owned  by  R.  I.  Barry,  Roodhouse] 

the  middle  of  the  three.  The  part  of  Lawrence  county  which 
was  then  included  in  Crawford  was  across  the  Wabash  from 
Vincennes  and  a  considerable  number  of  allotments  under  old 
grants  were  located  opposite  the  town,  but  there  seems  to  have 
been  no  settlement  here  except  such  as  was  connected  with  the 
ferry.  Some  Frenchmen  and  a  few  American  pioneers  estab- 
lished themselves  in  the  district  at  the  beginning  of  the  century, 
and  after  the  war  of  1812  was  over  settlers  pushed  in  rapidly  so 
that  by  1818  they  were  scattered  over  all  the  townships  east  of 
the  line  of  survey.  On  the  site  of  Russellville  in  the  southeastern 
part  of  Lawrence  county  a  little  frontier  fort  had  been  built  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Indian  troubles,  and  in  this  vicinity  settle- 
ment had  progressed  most  rapidly.  A  ferry  was  established 
at  this  point  in  1818^.  The  county  seat  and  only  town  of  Craw- 
ford county  was  Palestine,  located  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the 


62  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

Wabash,  on  La  Motte's  prairie.  Settlement  began  here  in  i8u> 
and  as  soon  as  the  war  was  over  the  town  was  laid  out  in  antici- 
pation of  the  organization  of  the  county  in  1816,  but  this  town 
appears  to  have  been  very  small  until  after  the  establishment  of 
a  land  office  there  in  1820. 

South  of  Crawford  and,  like  it,  stretching  from  the  Wabash 
to  the  third  principal  meridian,  lay  Edwards  county.  With  its 
southern  boundary  on  a  line  with  the  southern  boundaries  of  the 
present  Wayne  and  Edwards,  the  dimensions  of  the  county  were 
thirty-three  miles  from  north  to  south  and  seventy-five  on  an 
average  from  east  to  west.  Its  area,  therefore,  was  approxi- 
mately 2,475  square  miles,  and  within  its  boundaries  were  all 
of  the  present  Wabash,  Edwards,  and  Wayne  counties,  and  parts 
of  Lawrence,  Richland,  Clay,  Marion,  and  Jefferson.  Within 
this  area,  according  to  the  census  of  1818  as  reported  to  the 
convention,  there  were  only  2,243  inhabitants,  an  average  of  less 
than  one  to  the  square  mile.  The  original  schedule  made  by  the 
census  commissioner  for  Edwards  county  has  not  been  found, 
but  the  secretary  of  the  territory  reported  on  June  17,  1818, 
that  it  listed  a  population  of  1,948.  This  appears  to  have  cov- 
ered only  the  eastern  part  of  the  county,  however,  for  later  in 
the  summer  the  commissioner  for  Washington  county  crossed 
over  into  the  western  part  of  Edwards,  "the  detached  part,"  he 
called  it,  and  listed  forty-two  additional  families  containing  298 
souls.  No  supplementary  count  appears  to  have  been  made  in 
the  eastern  section,  although  the  population  there,  especially  on 
the  English  prairie,  increased  rapidly  during  the  summer  months. 

Through  the  center  of  the  county,  east  and  west,  ran  the  base 
line,  north  of  which  none  of  the  land  was  surveyed  and  open 
to  purchase,  except  that  in  the  Vincennes  tract  along  the  Wa- 
bash. Across  this  unsurveyed  region  ran  the  newly  laid-out 
road  from  Vincennes  to  St.  Louis,  and  on  this  road  were 
located  a  number  of  tavern  keepers  at  points  about  twenty  miles 
apart,  and  also  a  few  other  settlers.  In  the  present  Richland 
county,  it  is  doubtful  if  there  were  more  than  two  or  three 
families,  while  in  Clay  there  may  have  been  five  or  six  including 
three  tavern  keepers  on  the  road.  In  Marion  county,  however, 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  63 

a  little  settlement  of  ten  or  a  dozen  families  had  sprung  up  in 
and  around  the  site  of  Salem  and  there  were  three  or  four 
families  located  about  Walnut  Hill  where  the  "Goshen  Road," 
from  Shawneetown  to  Carlyle,  crossed  the  trail  branching  from 
the  Vincennes-St.  Louis  road.  Scattered  in  the  southern  part 
of  Marion  county  were  possibly  five  additional  families.  In 
the  limits  of  the  present  Jefferson  county  were  about  fourteen 
families,  most  of  whom  lived  along  the  Goshen  road.  Included 
in  this  number  were  at  least  two  tavern  keepers;  there  was  also 
the  nucleus  of  a  settlement  at  Mt.  Vernon.  East  of  these  settle- 
ments in  Marion  and  Jefferson  counties  and  south  of  the  Vin- 
cennes  road  lay  a  wide  stretch  of  country  apparently  without 
any  inhabitants.08 

Fully  two-thirds  of  the  population  of  the  Edwards  county 
of  1818  lived  in  the  triangle  between  the  Wabash  and  Bon  Pas 
creek,  the  present  Wabash  county  and  the  southern  part  of 
Lawrence.  Settlement  was  begun  in  this  region  as  early  as 
1800  by  a  number  of  Frenchmen  who  came  over  from  Vincennes 
to  locate  their  allotments  on  the  west  side  of  the  river.  The 
first  American  settlers  made  their  appearance  a  few  years  later 
but  there  was  little  advance  into  the  interior  until  after  the  war 
of  1812  was  over,  and  even  in  1818  the  bulk  of  the  settlers  lived 
within  six  or  eight  miles  of  the  Wabash  or  the  Embarras.  Be- 
tween Bon  Pas  creek  and  the  Little  Wabash  in  the  part  of  the 
modern  Edwards  county  below  the  base  line  was  located  the 
famous  English  settlement.  American  backwoodsmen  began  to 
establish  their  isolated  settlements  in  this  region  immediately 
after  the  close  of  the  war  of  1812,  and  by  the  end  of  1817  there 
were  perhaps  twenty-five  families  located  on  the  edges  of  the 
prairies  in  the  district.  Some  of  these  moved  away  as  the  Eng- 
lish came  in,  but  others  took  their  places,  and  it  is  probable  that 
there  were  more  American  than  English  families  in  the  region 
when  Illinois  became  a  state.  The  English  settlement,  which  in 
October,  1818,  numbered  about  200,  had  doubled  by  August  of 

MNo  attempt  has  been  made  to  include  in  the  footnotes  all  the  material 
on  which  this  survey  of  local  conditions  is  based.  For  further  information 
regarding  any  particular  locality  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  bibliography, 
p.  321  below,  and  to  the  lists  in  Buck,  Travel  and  Description. 


64  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

the  following  year,  but  there  were  then  about  700  Americans 
in  the  region.60  The  greater  number  of  the  settlers  in  1818 
lived  in  the  central  and  southern  parts  of  the  modern  Edwards 
county,  but  there  were  settlements  as  far  north  as  the  base  line 
with  possibly  two  or  three  families  above  the  line.  In  the  modern 
Wayne  county  lived  some  twenty  or  thirty  families,  mostly  in 
the  southeastern  part  on  or  near  the  Little  Wabash. 

The  oldest  town  in  Edwards  county,  and  the  county  seat,  was 
Palmyra,  which  had  been  laid  out  in  1815.  The  site  selected, 
a  low  and  swampy  spot  on  a  sluggish  bend  of  the  Wabash, 
proved  to  be  unhealthful;  and  in  1818  the  town  of  Mt.  Carmel 
was  started  about  three  miles  farther  down  the  river.  In  Octo- 
ber of  the  same  year  Albion  was  laid  out  in  the  center  of  the 
English  settlement;  and  in  1821  it  became  the  county  seat,  after 
which  Palmyra  soon  disappeared  from  the  map.  It  is  doubt- 
ful if  any  one  of  these  embryo  towns  contained  a  dozen  houses 
at  the  end  of  the  year  1818. 

South  of  Edwards  lay  White  county,  covering  the  territory 
included  in  the  present  White  and  Hamilton  counties  and  a  strip 
nine  miles  wide  of  the  southern  part  of  Jefferson  running  west 
to  the  third  principal  meridian.  Its  area  was  approximately 
1,150  square  miles  and  its  population,  according  to  the  final 
report  of  the  census  of  1818,  was  3,832.  The  density  was  thus 
between  three  and  four  to  the  square  mile.  Before  the  supple- 
mentary census  was  taken  the  population  was  reported  as  3,539 
and  the  schedule  shows  572  families  with  an  average  of  a  little 
above  six  to  a  family.  Eleven  free  people  of  color  and  fifty- 
seven  servants  or  slaves  were  noted  in  the  schedule.  Although 
all  the  land  in  White  county,  except  the  usual  reservations,  was 
open  for  entry,  only  a  small  proportion  of  it  had  been  taken 
up,  and  settlers  were  few  and  far  between  in  the  western  section. 
Apparently  the  only  settlement  in  the  area  of  the  present  Jeffer- 
son which  was  included  in  White  was  in  the  southeastern  town- 
ship, Moore's  prairie,  where  some  twenty  families  had  established 

**Ogg,  Fordham's  Personal  Narrative,  236 ;  Thwaites,  Early  Western  Trav- 
els, 10:104;  see  map  in  Fearon,  Sketches  of  America,  443,  and  in  Oge,  Ford- 
ham's  Personal  Narrative,  1 13 ;  for  Palmyra  see  Thwaites,  Early  Western 
Travels,  10:328. 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT 


65 


themselves.  Through  Hamilton  county,  diagonally  from  north- 
west to  southeast,  ran  the  Goshen  road,  which  was  a  good  draw- 
ing card  for  settlers;  but  it  is  doubtful  if  there  were  a  hundred 
families  in  the  county.  The  principal  settlements  appear  to  have 
been  in  the  central  township  in  which  McLeansboro  is  now  lo- 
cated and  in  Knight's  prairie,  the  township  directly  west;  but 
there  were  isolated  settlements  scattered  throughout  the  county. 
At  least  three- fourths  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  White  county 
of  1818  lived  within  the  territory  of  the  modern  White  county, 
and  here  the  region  of  densest  settlement  was  along  the  Wabash, 
on  both  sides  of  the  Little  Wabash,  and  between  the  two  streams. 
In  the  southwestern  part  of  the  county  there  was  a  considerable 


HANDMADE  Ox- YOKE 

[Original  owned  by  R.  I.  Barry,  Roodhottse] 

number  of  settlers,  but  the  northwestern  townships  were  prac- 
tically unoccupied.  On  the  Little  Wabash  near  the  center  of 
the  modern  White  county  was  located  the  county  seat,  Carmi, 
the  second  largest  town  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  territory. 
According  to  George  Flower  it  was  "a  very  small  place"  in  1818, 
and  the  statement  is  doubtless  correct,  for  three  years  before 
there  had  been  nothing  but  a  mill  on  the  site.  The  town  was  laid 
out  in  1816  and  in  the  same  year  a  store  was  started  and  a  ferry 
established.  The  sale  of  lots  was  advertised  for  July  15,  1816; 
and  in  December  the  county  officials  were  advertising  for  bids 
for  the  construction  of  a  two-story  brick  courthouse,  30  by  36 
feet  in  size.  By  1818  two  doctors  had  located  in  Carmi  and  a 
traveler  who  passed  through  the  town  the  next  year  reported 
that  it  "conducts  rather  lively  trade  in  wares."70 

''Flower,   English  Settlement,   109;   Intelligencer,  June   12,   December  4, 
1816;  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1903,  p.  150. 


66  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

The  oldest  county  on  the  east  side  of  the  state  is  Gallatin, 
established  by  executive  proclamation  in  1812.  By  1818,  through 
the  formation  of  other  counties,  it  had  been  reduced  to  an  area 
of  about  eight  hundred  square  miles  including  the  present  Gal- 
latin and  Saline  counties  and  the  northeastern  half  of  Hardin. 
The  schedule  of  the  first  census  of  1818  for  Gallatin  county  lists 
541  families  with  a  total  of  3,440  souls  including  83  free  negroes 
and  218  servants  or  slaves,  the  largest  number  of  each  of  these 
classes  to  be  found  in  any  of  the  counties.  The  additional  census, 
taken  during  June  and  July,  added  511  to  the  roll,  of  whom  8 
were  free  negroes  and  81  servants  or  slaves.  These  were 
grouped  in  75  families.  According  to  the  schedules,  therefore, 
the  total  was  3,951,  while  the  total  reported  to  the  convention 
was  3,849.  Inasmuch  as  this  latter  figure  is  larger  by  694  than 
the  population  reported  for  Gallatin  county,  with  the  same  area, 
by  the  United  States  census  of  1820,  it  becomes  apparent  that 
the  census  of  1818  is  not  reliable.  From  a  study  of  the  sched- 
ules it  is  evident  that  many  who  were  passing  through  to  locate 
elsewhere  in  the  state  or  even  in  Missouri  were  counted;  and 
the  permanent  population  in  the  fall  of  1818  was  probably  less 
than  three  thousand. 

A  most  important  factor  in  the  development  of  Gallatin 
county  was  the  salt  works  on  Saline  creek  and  the  government 
reservation  which  surrounded  them.  A  rectangle,  ten  by  thir- 
teen miles  in  the  center  of  the  county,  together  with  an  irregular 
strip  of  land  extending  from  the  southeastern  corner  of  the 
rectangle  along  the  creek  to  its  mouth,  had  been  set  aside  by 
the  United  States  government  for  the  support  of  the  salt  works. 
No  land  could  be  sold  in  the  reservation,  but  it  is  not  to  be 
inferred  that  there  was  no  settlement  there.  The  operation  of 
the  salt  works  gave  employment  to  a  considerable  number,  in- 
cluding probably  a  majority  of  the  slaves  in  the  county.  These 
were,  of  course,  entitled  to  reside  on  the  reservation,  and  there 
they  formed  a  little  settlement  which  later  became  the  town  of 
Equality.  There  were  others  living  on  the  reservation,  how- 
ever, who  had  no  connection  with  the  salt  works  but  who  refused 
to  be  deterred  by  the  impossibility  of  purchasing  the  land.  As 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  67 

early  as  1816  the  manager  of  the  saline  complained  to  the 
general  land  office  that  "the  intruders  on  this  tract  increase, 
and  experience  convinces  me  that  their  improvements  must  be 
destroyed  before  they  will  leave  it.  In  fact,  if  one  set  leaves 
it,  another  comes  on  it  immediately,  and  they  no  longer  pay  any 
attention  to  a  threat  from  me."71  Had  the  land  covered  by  the 
reservation  been  open  to  entry,  the  settlements  upon  it  would 
undoubtedly  have  been  much  more  extensive,  for  it  was  located 
near  the  land  office,  and  through  it  ran  the  road  from  Shawnee- 
town  to  Kaskaskia.  In  December,  1816,  a  number  of  inhabitants 
of  the  county  in  a  petition  to  congress  complained  that  "there 
has  been  none  but  temporary  nor  is  there  encouragement  for 
buildings  and  improvements,  within  the  reservation  for  a  public 
House  for  the  accommodation  of  Travellers,  and  persons  who 
have  to  resort  to  that  place  on  business."  They  pointed  out  that 
"the  road  is  much  travelled  and  from  the  great  emigration  to 
the  westward  must  increase  every  year"  and  requested  that  the 
tavern  keeper  might  be  allowed  to  enter  a  quarter  section  of 
land  which  he  would  improve  "with  permanent  and  convenient 
buildings,  [sic]  Grass  Lotts  &c  so  as  to  make  it  a  public  conven- 
ience."72 Congress  rejected  the  petition,  however,  and  when  the 
state  was  admitted  to  the  union  the  reservation  was  turned  over 
to  it  intact. 

In  what  is  now  Saline  county,  outside  the  reservation,  there 
were  probably  not  more  than  ninety  families,  a  considerable  pro- 
portion of  whom,  to  judge  from  the  land  entries,  lived  along  the 
road  to  Kaskaskia.  There  were  scattered  establishments  in 
various  parts  of  the  county,  as  well  as  in  the  part  of  Hardin  then 
included,  and  in  the  northwestern  and  southwestern  parts  of  the 
modern  Gallatin.  There  was  some  concentration  of  settlement 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  ferry  over  the  Little  Wabash  in  the  north- 
eastern part  of  the  county — the  beginnings  of  New  Haven :  but 
certainly  a  half,  and  probably  two-thirds  of  the  permanent  popu- 
lation of  Gallatin  county  lived  in  the  region  between  the  Ohio 

n American  State  Papers,  Public  Lands,  3  -.273. 
"Petition,  December  10,  1816,  in  House  Files. 


68  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

river  and  the  reservation  and  within  a  radius  of  six  or  eight 
miles  of  Shawneetown. 

The  first  white  settlement  in  this  region  is  said  to  have  been 
made  in  1800;  it  is  certain  that  Shawneetown  contained  a  few 
scattered  houses  in  1804.  Cuming,  a  traveler  who  visited  the 
place  in  1809  reported:  "The  town  now  contains  about  twenty- 
four  cabins,  and  is  a  place  of  considerable  resort  on  account  of 
the  saline  salt-works  about  twelve  miles  distant,  which  supply 
with  salt  all  the  settlements  within  one  hundred  miles,  and  I 
believe  even  the  whole  of  Upper  Louisiana  ....  There  were 
several  trading  boats  at  the  landing,  and  more  appearance  of 
business  than  I  had  seen  on  this  side  Pittsburgh."73  When 
Gallatin  county  was  established,  Shawneetown  became  the  county 
seat;  a  jail  was  erected  in  1810  and  a  courthouse  in  1815.  Until 
1814  the  land  on  which  the  town  was  located  belonged  to  the 
United  States  but  in  that  year  the  lots  were  sold  at  auction.  The 
bidding  appears  to  have  been  brisk  and  the  lots  sold  for  good 
prices.  Two  years  later,  however,  the  bubble  had  collapsed. 
The  purchasers  of  lots  then  drew  up  a  petition  to  congress  which 
brings  out  the  serious  disadvantages  of  the  town  as  well  as  the 
principal  cause  of  its  development.  The  petitioners,  having  pur- 
chased lots  "at  an  excessive  high  price,"  set  forth :  "That  within 
a  few  months  after  the  sales  of  the  said  lots,  our  town  was  visited 
by  a  most  destructive  epidemic,  which  nearly  depopulated  the 
place;  and  immediately  after  in  the  same  winter  the  whole  of  the 
town  on  the  River  was  inundated,  the  water  being  from  10  to 
20  feet  over  the  whole  of  that  part  of  the  town  ....  That 
alarmed  and  disheartened  many  persons  have  ceased  to  improve, 
and  have  abandoned  the  place,  and  others  have  been  detered  from 
settling  here. — That  under  these  unfortunate  combinations  the  im- 
provements have  languished,  and  at  length  appear  to  have  ceased 
entirely,  the  lots  have  depreciated  so  much  in  value,  that  very 
few  of  your  petitioners  can  venture  to  make  the  remaining  three 
payments  into  the  land  office ; .  .  .  .  That  at  the  time  the  sales 
of  lots  in  Shawneetown  took  place,  in  consequence  of  the  War, 
salt  was  commanding  a  very  high  price,  and  the  Saline  was  in 

"Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels,  4:271. 


CAHOKIA 

[From  Wild,  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  (1841),  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society! 


KASKASKIA 

[From  Wild,  Ka//ey  o/  the  Mississippi  (1841),  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  69 

extensive  operation. — Peace  has  brought  down  the  price  of  salt, 
mismanagement  has  made  the  Saline  of  little  comparitive  value, 
and  consequently  cut  off  the  best  branch  of  the  trade  which  here- 
tofore has  centered  at  Shawneetown. — That  the  then  promising 
prospects  of  our  town,  drew  to  the  sales  of  lots  a  vast  number  of 
distant  adventurers,  which  together  with  an  unhappy  spirit  of 
opposition  amongst  ourselves  combined  to  run  up  the  lots  to  the 
astonishing  prices  for  which  they  were  sold;  prices  far  greater 
than  they  would  now  bring  if  again  offered  for  sale."  In  view 
of  this  doleful  situation,  the  purchasers  asked  to  be  relieved  from 
further  payments;  but  congress,  needless  to  say,  rejected  the 
petition.7* 

Besides  the  salt  works,  there  were  two  other  factors  of  im- 
portance in  the  development  of  Shawneetown.  It  was  the  prin- 
cipal port  of  entry  for  emigrants  whose  destination  was  farther 
north  in  White  and  Edwards  counties,  and  also  for  the  even 
greater  numbers  bound  for  western  Illinois  and  Missouri. 
Closely  connected  with  this  was  the  fact  that  the  land  office  for 
the  southeastern  part  of  the  state  was  located  here.  These 
factors,  however,  contributed  to  the  transient  rather  than  to  the 
permanent  population  of  the  town,  which  even  in  1818  was 
described  by  one  traveler  as  "a  handful  of  log  cabins."  Another 
visitor  pictured  it  "an  inconsiderable  place  ....  [containing] 
several  taverns,  a  bake-house,  and  a  few  huts."  A  more  definite 
writer  counted  "about  30  houses  (log.)  The  chief  occupation 
of  the  inhabitants  is  the  salt  trade.  There  is  here  a  'United 
States'  Land-office/  and  a  log  bank  is  just  established.  The 
chief  cashier  of  this  establishment  was  engaged  in  cutting  logs  at 
the  moment  of  my  arrival."75  William  Tell  Harris,  who  passed 
through  Shawneetown  in  September,  1818,  on  his  way  from  the 
English  settlement  to  Kentucky,  after  commenting  on  the  annual 
floods  and  the  unhealth fulness  of  the  site,  noted  "considerable 
business  being  done  here,  as  it  is  on  the  road  from  the  southern 
States  to  St.  Louis,  and  the  Missouri,  and  the  land-office  is  here. 

"Petition  referred  December  24,  1816,  and  committee  report,  December  30, 
1816,  in  House  Files. 

"Thwaites,   Early   Western   Travels,  8:291;   13:70;   Fearon,  Sketches  of 

America,  258. 


70  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

The  number  of  waggons,  horses,  and  passengers  crossing,  and 
waiting  to  cross  the  Ohio,  was  so  great,  that  a  great  part  of  the 
morning  was  spent  in  waiting  for  my  turn;  at  length  I  grew 
impatient,  and  taking  the  opportunity  of  a  skiff,  turned  my  back 
on  Illinois,  and  landed  in  the  State  of  Kentucky."78  Such  was 
the  metropolis  of  eastern  Illinois  and  the  chief  town  on  the 
Ohio  below  Louisville  in  1818. 

Pope  county  included,  besides  the  present  county  of  that  name, 
the  southwestern  half  of  Hardin  and  the  part  of  Massac  east  of 
the  western  boundary  of  the  modern  Pope  extending  south  to  the 
Ohio  river.  In  this  territory  of  about  600  square  miles  according 
to  the  final  census  figures  there  lived  2,069  people,  an  average  of 
a  little  above  three  to  the  square  mile.  The  schedule  of  the  first 
census  totals  1,944,  including  64  servants  or  slaves.  There  were 
322  families  with  an  average  of  six  members.  Little  informa- 
tion is  available  as  to  the  location  of  these  people  but  it  is  probable 
that  most  of  them  lived  along  or  near  the  road  leading  west  from 
Golconda  to  Kaskaskia  or  along  the  Ohio.  Golconda  itself,  the 
county  seat,  consisted  of  only  a  handful  of  houses  and  a  tavern 
clustered  about  the  ferry  near  the  mouth  of  Lusk  creek.  About 
twenty-five  miles  farther  up  the  Ohio  a  promoter  had  laid  out  a 
paper  town  to  which  he  gave  the  breezy  name  of  Hurricane,  and 
the  sale  of  lots  was  advertised  for  the  last  Thursday  in  May, 
1818.  There  is  no  evidence  of  any  special  settlement  here;  but 
there  may  have  been  a  ferry,  for  the  place  was  announced  as 
on  the  "great  crossway  from  the  southern  and  western  states, 
to  the  principal  towns  upon  the  Mississippi  river."77 

West  of  Pope  lay  Johnson  county,  embracing  the  present  John- 
son and  the  parts  of  Pulaski  and  Massac  between  it  and  the  Ohio 
river.  With  the  exception  of  Monroe,  Johnson  was  the  smallest 
county  in  the  state,  having  an  area  of  only  about  four  hundred 
square  miles;  and  its  population  was  less  than  that  of  any  other 
county.  Only  678  people  including  I  free  negro  and  24  servants 
or  slaves,  grouped  in  117  families,  were  counted  in  the  first  census 
report  of  1818.  To  these  the  supplementary  census  added  89, 

"Harris,  Remarks  made  during  a  Tour,  139. 
"Intelligencer,  April  15,  1818. 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  71 

making  a  total  of  767.  Circling  through  the  western  part  of 
the  county  ran  the  Cache  river  with  tributaries  flowing  in  from 
the  north,  and  along  these  streams  and  the  Golconda-Kaskaskia 
road  which  crossed  them,  in  the  precincts  of  Elvira,  Bloomfield, 
and  Vienna  were  located  the  bulk  of  the  settlers.  The  county 
seat  was  at  Elvira  until  Union  county  was  set  off  in  January, 
1818;  it  was  then  changed  to  Vienna.  Very  few  settlers  appear 
to  have  located  along  the  Ohio,  although  much  of  the  land  there 
had  been  bought  by  speculators,  and  lots  in  "Waterloo  .... 
on  the  western  bank  of  the  Ohio  ....  nine  miles  below  the 
mouth  of  Tennessee  river,"  were  advertised  to  be  sold  on  April 
10,  i8i8.78  This  location  must  have  been  at  or  near  the  present 
site  of  Metropolis,  a  town  which  was  not  started  until  1839. 

Franklin  county,  one  of  the  two  counties  which  nowhere 
touched  the  boundaries  of  the  state,  included  the  modern  Frank- 
lin and  Williamson,  an  area  of  about  860  square  miles.  It  was 
one  of  the  three  new  counties  established  in  January,  1818.  The 
census  in  Franklin,  which  was  not  completed  until  July  II,  shows 
a  population,  according  to  the  schedule,  of  1,228  or  less  than  two 
to  the  square  mile.79  The  number  of  families  was  171.  There 
were  1 5  slaves  and  52  free  negroes,  the  latter  including  five  whole 
families  living  near  together  on  Saline  creek.  The  modern 
Franklin  county  is  drained  principally  by  the  Big  Muddy  and 
its  forks,  while  through  Williamson  flows  Crab  Orchard  creek, 
a  branch  of  the  Big  Muddy,  and  Saline  creek,  the  waters  of  which 
reach  the  Wabash  through  the  Saline  river.  Across  the  southern 
tier  of  townships  of  the  modern  Franklin  ran  the  new  road  from 
Shawneetown  to  Kaskaskia,  which  was  under  construction  in 
1818,  while  the  route  of  the  old  road  between  the  same  places, 
crossed  Williamson.  The  people  appear  to  have  located  princi- 
pally in  the  vicinity  of  these  streams  and  roads,  with  some  con- 
centration in  Frankfort  precinct.  There  was  nothing  in  the 
county  that  could  be  called  a  town ;  and  the  county  records,  until 

^Intelligencer,  February  n,  1818.  Another  Waterloo  in  Monroe  county 
which  is  still  in  existence,  was  laid  out  the  same  year.  See  p.  78,  79. 

"The  final  report  to  the  convention  was  1,281.  There  was  no  supplemen- 
tary census,  however,  and  the  discrepancy  was  probably  caused  by  an  error  in 
addition. 


72  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

1826,  were  kept  at  the  tavern  of  Moses  Garrett  on  the  old  road 
about  three  miles  east  of  the  site  of  Frankfort. 

Union  county  was  another  of  the  three  established  in  January, 
1818.  At  that  time  its  boundaries  were  fixed  exactly  as  they 
are  now,  but  the  region  south  from  these  boundaries  to  the 
Mississippi  and  Ohio,  including  the  modern  Alexander  and  the 
greater  part  of  Pulaski  was  "attached  to"  and  made  "a  part  of" 
Union  county  until  it  should  be  formed  into  a  separate  county. 
This  whole  area,  comprising  about  eight  hundred  square  miles, 
had  a  population  of  2,709  according  to  the  final  report  of  the 
census  of  1818.  This  made  an  average  density  of  between  three 
and  four  to  the  square  mile.  The  schedules  of  the  census  as 
first  taken  show  2,492  inhabitants  grouped  in  392  families. 
There  were  33  servants  or  slaves  but  no  free  negroes.  At  least 
two-thirds  of  these  settlers  were  located  within  the  modern  Union 
county,  and  of  these  the  greater  number  lived  some  eight  or  ten 
miles  back  from  the  Mississippi  river  on  the  divide  separating 
the  creeks  flowing  into  the  Mississippi  from  those  that  entered 
the  Cache.  There  were  a  few  settlers  along  the  Mississippi, 
however,  and  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  county,  especially  in 
Stokes  precinct,  through  which  passed  the  road  from  Golconda 
to  Kaskaskia.  The  few  families  living  in  Alexander  county  and 
the  part  of  Pulaski  contained  in  Union  were  located  along  or  a 
few  miles  back  from  the  Ohio  and  on  or  near  the  Cache. 

Although  Union  county  was  liberally  supplied  with  paper 
towns  in  1818,  of  real  towns  there  was  only  a  beginning.  The 
principal  concentration  of  settlement  appears  to  have  been  near 
the  center  of  the  modern  Union;  and  here  in  March,  1818,  the 
commissioners  located  the  county  seat,  to  which  was  given  the 
name  of  Jonesboro.  The  first  sale  of  lots  took  place  in  July,  and 
some  of  them  are  said  to  have  brought  over  a  hundred  dollars. 
On  the  Mississippi  twelve  miles  above  Cape  Girardeau,  a  group  of 
speculators  had  laid  out  the  town  of  "Hamburg,"  named  doubt- 
less with  a  view  to  attracting  the  trade  of  the  "Dutch  settle- 
ment" an  industrious  community  located  in  the  northeastern  part 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  73 

of  Meisenheimer  precinct.80  There  was  a  ferry  here  and  lots 
were  advertised  to  be  sold  at  auction  on  September  i,  but  no 
town  has  ever  developed  on  the  site.  It  was  along  the  Ohio 
that  town-site  projects  flourished  most  luxuriantly.  The  greater 
part  of  the  land  here  was  purchased  by  speculators  as  soon  as 
it  was  offered  by  the  government  and  about  1817  a  town  called 
Trinity  was  laid  out  just  above  the  mouth  of  the  Cache.  No 
lots  appear  to  have  been  sold  but  a  joint  tavern  and  store  was 
established;  and  the  place  was  a  point  of  transshipment  for  river 
traffic  for  a  few  years,  until  a  growing  sand  bar  put  an  end  to  its 
prosperity.  Several  of  the  men  connected  with  Trinity  were  also 
interested  in  a  town  six  miles  farther  up  the  river,  called  America, 
"which  was  laid  out  with  much  pomp  and  parade  as  the  future 
great  metropolis  in  1818."  In  advertising  a  sale  of  lots  to  take 
place  on  the  third  Monday  in  November,  the  proprietors  modestly 
observed  that  "the  obvious  advantages  of  its  local  situation 
....  and  its  general  notoriety,  are  such  as  to  render  all  com- 
ment on  its  merits,  superfluous."  The  first  house  appears  to 
have  been  built  by  Dr.  W.  M.  Alexander  in  the  winter  of 
1818-19;  and  when  Alexander  county  was  established  America 
became  its  county  seat.  The  county  business  kept  the  town  alive 
for  a  few  years81. 

The  most  interesting  of  all  the  schemes  for  towus  in  Union 
county  was  "The  City  and  Bank  of  Cairo"  which  was  incorpo- 
rated by  an  act  of  the  territorial  legislature,  January  9,  1818. 
Five  months  earlier  John  G.  Comegys  of  Baltimore  had  entered 
about  eighteen  hundred  acres  of  land  on  the  narrow  peninsula 
between  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers,  but  not  including  the 
extreme  point.  This  land  was  now  deeded  to  the  company  of 

"Perrin,  History  of  Alexander,  Union,  and  Pulaski  Counties,  287,  358,^  435. 
W.  M.  Alexander,  one  of  the  proprietors  of  America,  proposed  to  build  a 
bridge  across  the  Cache  "so  as  to  draw  the  trade  of  the  Dutch  in  Union 
county."  Ibid.,  270.  None  of  the  names  of  members  of  this  settlement  given 
in  the  county  history  are  to  be  found  in  the  census  schedule.  Possibly  they 
were  included  in  the  supplementary  census. 

"Ibid.,  67-72,  269,  448-453 ;  Intelligencer,  October  21,  1818. 


74  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

which  Comegys  was  the  moving  spirit;  an  elaborate  plat  was 
prepared ;  and  plans  were  laid  for  the  sale  of  lots  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  bank,  which  was  to  be  located  temporarily  at 
Kaskaskia.  The  act  of  incorporation  provided  for  two  thousand 
lots  which  were  to  be  sold  at  $150  each.  One-third  of  the 
proceeds  was  to  be  used  in  constructing  levees  to  protect  the  city 
from  floods,  and  for  other  improvements.  The  remaining  two- 
thirds  was  to  constitute  the  capital  stock  of  the  bank,  one-half 
of  which  should  belong  to  Comegys  and  his  associates  and  one- 
half  to  the  purchasers  of  the  lots.  The  death  of  Comegys  in 
1819  was  followed  by  the  collapse  of  the  entire  scheme;  the  land 
reverted  to  the  government,  and  Cairo  remained  unborn  for 
another  twenty  years. 

Advancing  up  the  Mississippi,  the  next  county  above  Union 
was  Jackson,  which,  in  1818,  included  the  territory  of  the  present 
Jackson  and  a  strip  six  miles  wide  off  the  south  of  Perry — about 
730  square  miles  in  all.  The  population  of  the  county  according 
to  the  final  report  of  the  census  of  1818  was  1,619,  making  the 
density  only  a  little  above  two  to  the  square  mile.  There  were 
240  families,  and  53  of  the  inhabitants  were  servants  or  slaves. 
The  first  census  report  gave  the  population  as  1,295,  but  38  addi- 
tional families  were  discovered  by  the  supplementary  census. 
The  principal  attractions  to  settlement  in  the  county  were  the  Big 
Muddy  river  and  its  tributaries  flowing  in  from  the  north.  Along 
these  streams  and  the  Mississippi,  and  to  a  smaller  extent  along 
the  several  roads  which  crossed  the  county,  were  located  the 
greater  number  of  settlers,  although  there  were  isolated  estab- 
lishments throughout  the  county.  The  largest  groups  of  settle- 
ments were  on  the  Big  Muddy  near  the  center  of  the  modern 
Jackson  county.  Here  were  located  the  salt  works  of  Dr. 
Conrad  Will  and  the  county  seat,  Brownsville.  This  town,  which 
has  now  entirely  disappeared,  was  situated  on  the  north  bank 
of  the  river  about  four  miles  west  of  the  site  of  Murphysboro. 
It  was  laid  out  by  Dr.  Will  when  the  county  was  organized  in 
1816,  the  sale  of  lots  being  advertised  for  July  15.  By  1818  it 
had  a  frame  courthouse  and  log  jail,  a  store,  and  a  blacksmith 
shop.  For  a  number  of  years  Brownsville  was  a  flourishing 


PRAIRIE  DU  ROCHER 

[From  Wild,  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  (1841),  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 


ILLINOIS  TOWN  OR  EAST  ST.  Louis 

[From  Wild,  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  (1841),  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  75 

town,  but  ihe  closing  of  the  saline  and  the  removal  of  the  county 
seat  to  Murphysboro  in  1843  sealed  its  fate. 

Randolph  county,  lying  north  of  Jackson  and  stretching  from 
the  Mississippi  to  the  third  principal  meridian,  included  besides 
the  present  Randolph,  the  northern  two-thirds  of  Perry  county 
— a  total  area  of  about  875  square  miles.  Unfortunately  the 
schedule  of  the  first  census  of  1818  for  Randolph  county  has  not 
been  found,  but  the  population  as  reported  by  the  secretary  of  the 
territory  in  June  was  2,939.  The  supplementary  census  added 
sixteen  families  with  forty-five  souls,  which  would  make  a  total 
of  2,984,  but  the  final  report  to  the  convention  was  2,974.  The 
average  density  in  the  county,  therefore,  was  between  three  and 
four  to  the  square  mile.  The  population  was  very  unevenly 
distributed,  however,  for  it  is  doubtful  if  there  were  two  hundred 
people  living  in  the  part  now  included  in  Perry  county  and  the 
western  tier  of  townships  in  Randolph.  The  region  of  densest 
settlement  was  in  the  American  bottom  along  the  Mississippi  and 
up  the  Kaskaskia  river,  and  nearly  half  the  population  of  the 
county  was  to  be  found  in  the  two  towns  of  Kaskaskia  and 
Prairie  du  Rocher. 

Although  Kaskaskia  was  over  a  hundred  years  old  and  had 
been  for  many  years  the  metropolis  of  the  upper  Mississippi 
valley,  it  impressed  a  visitor  in  1819  as  "not  very  important." 
From  1765  on,  Kaskaskia  had  declined  steadily  in  population 
until  in  1807  it  was  reported  to  consist  of  not  more  than  fifty 
families.82  In  1809,  however,  it  became  the  capital  of  the  new 
territory  of  Illinois,  and  that  event,  together  with  the  acquisition 
of  the  land  office,  gave  it  a  new  lease  on  life.  Its  population  in 
1810  was  reported  as  622.  By  the  close  of  the  territorial  period 
it  must  have  had  nearly  a  thousand  inhabitants,  and  Governor 
Edwards  had  sufficient  faith  in  its  future  to  announce  his  inten- 
tion of  applying  to  the  court  for  an  order  to  add  to  the  town  an 
adjoining  tract  of  thirty-four  and  three-fourths  acres.83  Samuel 
Brown  in  his  Western  Gazetteer  (1817)  describes  the  town  as 
"situated  on  the  right  shore  of  the  river  of  the  same  name, 

"Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1903,  p.  152;  Schultz, 
Travels,  2  74. 

"Darby,  Emigrant's  Guide,  213;  Intelligencer,  April  i,  1818. 


76  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

eleven  miles  from  its  mouth,  and  six  from  the  Mississippi,  in  a 
direct  line.  It  is  at  present  the  seat  of  the  territorial  govern- 
ment and  chief  town  of  Randolph  county — contains  160  houses, 
scattered  over  an  extensive  plain;  some  of  them  are  of  stone. 
Almost  every  house  has  a  spacious  picketed  garden  in  its  rear. 
The  houses  have  a  clumsy  appearance;  it  is  150  miles  south-west 
of  Vincennes,  and  900  from  the  city  of  Washington.  The  inhab- 
itants are  more  than  half  French,  they  raise  large  stocks  of 
horned  cattle,  horses,  swine,  poultry,  &c.  There  is  a  postoffice, 
a  land  office  for  the  sale  of  the  public  lands,  and  a  printing  office, 
from  which  is  issued  a  weekly  newspaper  entitled  the  'Illinois 
Herald.'  This  place  was  settled  upwards  of  100  years,  ago,  by 
the  French  of  Lower  Canada.  The  surrounding  lands  are  in  a 
good  state  of  cultivation."  Dana,  in  his  Geographical  Sketches 
(1819),  waxes  enthusiastic  over  Kaskaskia:  "Placed  near  the 
mouth  of  a  river  extensively  navigable,  and  in  the  vicinity  of 
some  of  the  richest  lands  of  the  western  country,  connected  with 
a  convenient  position  for  commerce,  this  place  assumes  that 
degree  of  importance  which  must  eventually  attract  wealth  and 
numbers.  It  has  a  good  harbor  for  boats,  contains  a  land  office, 
a  printing-office,  and  a  bank,  and  is  now  in  a  flourishing  condi- 
tion." An  eastern  traveler  who  visited  the  town  in  November, 
1819,  presents  quite  a  different  picture:  "Remained  in  this 
inconsiderable  village  this  day.  Much  disappointed  in  the  appear- 
ance of  the  long-talked-of  Kaskaskia.  It  is  situated  on  the  Okaw 
or  Kaskaskia  river,  three  miles  from  the  Mississippi.  It  never 
can  be  a  place  of  much  business.  The  land  office  is  kept  at  this 
place.  There  are  some  neat  buildings,  but  they  are  generally  old, 
ugly  and  inconvenient.  Their  streets  are  irregular  and  of  bad 
widths.  The  inhabitants  are  all  generals,  colonels,  majors,  land 
speculators  or  adventurers,  with  now  and  then  a  robber  and  a 
cutthroat." 

Nevertheless  Kaskaskia  must  have  been  a  place  of  considerable 
commercial  importance  in  1818,  for  its  weekly  newspaper  con- 
tained advertisements  of  nine  general  stores,  an  establishment 
for  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  hats,  and  three  tailor  shops. 
There  was  only  one  tavern,  however,  the  famous  Bennett's,  and 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  77 

its  accommodations  were  severely  taxed  by  the  constitutional 
convention  of  thirty-three  members.  John  Mason  Peck,  the 
Baptist  missionary,  who  stopped  there  while  the  convention  was 
in  session,  was  informed  that  "every  room  was  occupied,  and 
every  bed  had  two  or  more  lodgers."84  Kaskaskia  was  not  in  a 
position  to  profit  by  the  immigration  which  was  surging  through 
Shawneetown  and  up  the  Mississippi  to  the  northwestern  coun- 
ties, and  with  the  removal  of  the  capital  and  the  newspaper  to 
Vandalia  in  1820  it  began  to  decline  again.  Following  a  flood 
in  1844,  the  county  seat  was  removed  to  Chester  and  during  a 
subsequent  inundation  the  Mississippi  cut  a  new  channel  to  the 
Kaskaskia  just  above  the  town,  so  that  all  there  is  left  today  of 
the  first  capital  of  Illinois  is  a  building  or  two  on  an  island  in 
the  Mississippi. 

Fifteen  miles  farther  up  the  American  bottom,  near  the  north- 
western corner  of  the  county,  was  the  old  French  village  of 
Prairie  du  Rocher,  nestling  under  the  bluffs  which  gave  it  the 
name.  Schultz  found  about  forty  Catholic  families  there  in 
1807.  Brown's  Western  Gazetteer  (1817)  reported  "sixty  to 
seventy  French  families ;  the  streets  are  narrow — there  is  a  cath- 
olic chapel."  The  village  was  on  the  road  from  Kaskaskia  to  St. 
Louis,  and  in  1816  Archibald  M'Nabb  advertised  the  opening 
there  of  a  "house  of  private  entertainment."  The  best-known 
tavern,  however,  was  that  of  Pierre  La  Compte,  which,  after  his 
death  in  1818,  was  carried  on  by  his  widow.  There  were  no 
other  towns  in  Randolph  county  when  Illinois  became  a  state, 
although  a  couple  of  speculators  were  advertising  the  town  of 
Blenheim  "situated  about  thirteen  miles  from  the  town  of 
Kaskaskia,  at  the  junction  of  Horse  creek  and  the  Kaskaskia 
river  ....  it  lies  immediately  on  the  direct  line  from  Kaskaskia 
to  Belleville,  Edwardsville  and  St.  Louis,  on  a  road  exempt  from 
the  unavoidable  inconveniences  connected  with  the  present  route 
to  those  places."85 

MThe  descriptions  of  Kaskaskia  from  which  quotations  have  been  made 
are  found  in  Brown,  Western  Gazetteer,  27;  Dana,  Geographical  Sketches, 
154;  Mason,  Narrative,  56;  Babcock,  Memoir  of  Peck,  97. 

"Intelligencer,  October  2,  1816,  April  22,  May  13,  1818. 


78  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

The  smallest  county  in  Illinois  in  1818  and  the  only  one  which 
is  larger  today  than  it  was  then,  was  Monroe,  situated  on  the 
Mississippi  just  above  Randolph.  Its  boundaries  at  that  time  did 
not  include  the  township  which  now  projects  to  the  eastward. 
With  an  area  of  about  340  square  miles,  Monroe  county  had  a 
population  of  1,371  according  to  the  schedule  of  the  first  census 
of  1818.  The  number  of  families  was  227,  and  there  were  41 
servants  or  slaves  and  6  free  negroes.  After  the  supplementary 
census  was  taken,  the  total  population  was  reported  as  1,517, 
giving  the  county  an  average  density  of  nearly  six  to  the  square 
mile.  While  there  were  settlers  in  all  parts  of  the  county,  the 
regions  of  greatest  density  were  the  Mississippi  bottom  and  the 
higher  lands  in  the  north  central  part  extending  from  the  New 
Design  settlement  near  the  center  beyond  the  site  of  Waterloo. 
From  New  Design  southward,  John  Mason  Peck  traveled  in 
1818  "for  sixteen  miles,  without  a  house,  to  the  French  village 
of  Prairie  du  Rocher,"  while  Mason,  the  following  year  "saw 
only  three  houses"  from  Waterloo  to  Prairie  du  Rocher.88  When 
the  county  was  organized  in  1816  the  seat  of  justice  was  fixed 
at  Harrisonville  on  the  Mississippi  about  midway  between  the 
northern  and  southern  boundaries,  and  a  dinner  was  held  at 
M'Clure's  tavern  in  celebration  of  the  event.  A  few  months 
later  M'Night  and  Brady  were  advertising  a  sale  of  lots  in 
Carthage,  "formerly  Harrisonville,"  but  the  latter  name  was 
restored  by  legislative  enactment  in  December,  1816.  In  1818 
the  county  commissioners  advertised  the  sale  of  a  number  of 
lots  in  the  town.  There  were  probably  about  fifty  families  in 
Harrisonville  and  its  vicinity  when  the  census  was  taken.  Water- 
loo, the  present  county  seat  was  laid  out  in  1818  by  Daniel  P. 
Cook  and  George  Forquer  "at  the  well  known  stand  of  Mrs. 
Ford,  on  the  road  leading  from  Kaskaskia  to  St.  Louis,  36  miles 
from  the  former,  and  24  from  the  latter  place.  It  is  surrounded 
by  a  beautiful  and  fertile  country  and  a  population  of  50  families 
within  5  or  6  miles."  The  public  sale  of  lots  took  place  at  Har- 
risonville, the  first  Monday  in  April,  after  which  the  "few  lots" 
remaining  unsold  were  to  be  purchased  from  Forquer  "on  the 

"Babcock,  Memoir  of  Peck,  97 ;  Mason,  Narrative,  55. 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  79 

premises."  There  is  no  evidence,  however,  of  any  influx  of  set- 
tlers before  the  census  was  taken,  and  as  late  as  November,  1819, 
a  traveler  reported  that  he  "lodged  at  Waterloo,  a  town  without 
houses.  Only  two  families  in  the  place.  Every  land  speculator 
produces  one  or  more  of  these  dirt-cabin  villages."87 

St.  Clair,  the  oldest  county  in  Illinois,  had  been  reduced  by 
1818  to  its  present  boundaries  with  the  exception  of  Prairie  du 
Long  precinct  which  has  since  been  transferred  to  Monroe 
county.  Within  this  area  of  about  725  square  miles  there  dwelt 
5,039  people,  according  to  the  final  report,  making  the  density 
about  seven  to  the  square  mile,  higher  than  that  of  any  other 
county.  The  schedule  of  the  first  census  has  been  burned  in  part 
while  that  of  the  supplementary  census,  which  added  520  to  the 
original  figure  of  4,519,  has  not  been  found,  but  it  is  evident  from 
what  is  available  that  the  families  averaged  between  six  and  seven 
members.  Even  in  this  most  densely  populated  part  of  the  state, 
therefore,  there  was  only  about  one  family  to  each  square  mile, 
and  as  part  of  the  population  lived  in  the  villages  the  statement 
of  the  county  historian  that  "the  settlements  were  so  sparse  that 
seldom  did  neighbors  live  nearer  than  two  miles  to  each  other" 
is  probably  not  far  from  the  truth.  St.  Clair  county  was  one  of 
the  first  regions  to  attract  the  American  pioneers  in  considerable 
numbers,  and  some  years  before  the  close  of  the  territorial  period 
settlements  had  been  established  in  all  parts  of  the  county.  The 
metropolis  of  the  county  was  the  old  French  village  of  Cahokia 
which  at  one  time  had  rivaled  Kaskaskia,  the  capital.  Schultz 
found  "about  a  hundred  and  thirty  houses"  there  in  1807,  "one 
dozen  of  which  may  be  inhabited  by  Americans."  The  county 
seat  was  at  Cahokia  at  that  time,  and  after  this  was  removed  in 
1814,  there  was  probably  a  decline  in  population.  Brown  in  his 
Western  Gazetteer  (1817)  describes  the  village  as  "situated  on 
a  small  stream,  about  one  mile  east  of  the  Mississippi,  nearly 
opposite  to  St.  Louis.  It  contains  about  160  houses,  mostly 
French."  Dana's  Geographical  Sketches  (1819)  also  mentions 

"Intelligencer,  June  12,  October  2,  1816,  February  4,  March  u,  May  13, 
1818 ;  Laws  of  Illinois  Territory,  1816-1817,  p.  3. 


80  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

one  hundred  and  sixty  houses  but  in  another  place  gives  the  popu- 
lation as  about  five  hundred.  Mason,  a  pessimistic  traveler  who 
passed  through  in  1819  speaks  of  it  as  "a  small  village  called 
Cahokia,  a  miserable,  dirty  little  hole"  and  again  as  "a  small  and 
unimproving  village."88 

As  the  American  settlers  in  the  interior  of  the  county  increased 
in  numbers,  the  desire  grew  to  have  the  county  seat  in  a  more 
central  location  and  in  1813  commissioners  were  appointed  by 
the  legislature  to  select  a  new  site.  In  March,  1814,  the  commis- 
sioners decided  in  favor  of  the  cornfield  of  one  George  Blair, 
and  in  accordance  with  the  usual  practice  in  such  cases  Blair 
agreed  to  donate  to  the  county  an  acre  of  land  for  the  county 
buildings  and  one-fifth  of  the  lots  in  the  town,  to  be  laid  out  in 
the  adjoining  twenty-five  acres.  The  survey  was  made  at  once 
and  the  June  term  of  court  was  held  at  Blair's  house.  The  plat 
was  not  recorded,  however,  until  a  few  years  later  when  Gov- 
ernor Edwards  had  become  the  proprietor.  In  December,  1817, 
he  was  offering  lots  at  sixty  dollars  until  the  end  of  the  year, 
after  which  date  they  were  to  be  a  hundred  dollars  each.  By 
the  time  Illinois  became  a  state  Belleville  had  a  courthouse,  jail, 
general  store,  one  or  two  taverns  and  possibly  other  establish- 
ments. Dana  described  it  as  "a  flourishing  new  town"  but  it  is 
doubtful  if  it  had  150  inhabitants.89 

A  still  smaller  place  was  Illinoistown,  though  now,  under  an- 
other name,  it  has  become  the  largest  city  in  the  county.  As 
early  as  1815  the  advantages  of  the  site  directly  across  the  Missis- 
sippi from  St.  Louis  were  observed  and  it  was  platted  as  a  town 
with  the  name  of  "Jacksonville."  The  property  soon  changed 
hands  and  was  replatted  as  the  "Town  of  Illinois,"  the  lots  being 
sold  at  auction  in  St.  Louis,  November  3,  1817.  The  following 
March,  Simon  Vanorsdal  gave  notice  of  his  intention  to  apply 
"for  an  order  to  establish  a  Town  .  .  .  .  on  a  tract  of  land  con- 
taining 100  acres,  lying  on  the  Mississippi  river,  opposite  St. 
Louis."  Whether  this  was  to  be  a  rival  or  an  addition  to  Illinois- 
town  does  not  appear.  A  tavern  and  a  store  existed  near  the 

"Schultz,  Travels,  2 139 ;  Brown,  Western  Gazetteer,  27 ;  Dana,  Geo- 
graphical Sketches,  150,  154;  Mason,  Narrative,  53,  62. 

"History  of  St.  Clair  County  (1881),  183-185;  Intelligencer,  May  22,  1816, 
December  n,  1817;  Dana,  Geographical  Sketches,  154. 


GURDON    S.    HUBBARD 
[From  original  owned  by  H.  W.  Fay,  De  Kalb] 


ALEXANDER  WOLCOTT 

From  original  painting  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  81 

east  end  of  the  ferry  to  St.  Louis  as  early  as  1815,  and  a  traveler 
who  passed  that  way  in  November,  1819,  speaks  of  "the  town  of 
Illinois,  on  the  Mississippi,  a  little  village  opposite  St.  Louis."90 

Before  1818  St.  Clair  county  had  extended  east  to  the  third 
principal  meridian,  but  in  January  of  that  year  the  eastern  part 
including  the  modern  Washington  and  all  of  Clinton  except  the 
northern  tier  of  townships  was  set  off  as  Washington  county. 
In  this  area  of  900  square  miles,  there  dwelt,  according  to  the 
final  report,  1,819  people,  an  average  of  about  two  to  the  square 
mile.  There  were  265  families,  16  with  113  souls  having  been 
added  by  the  supplementary  census.  The  number  of  free  negroes 
was  19  and  there  were  28  servants  or  slaves.  This  small  popu- 
lation was  very  unevenly  distributed  over  the  county,  however, 
probably  nine-tenths  being  in  what  is  now  Clinton  county.  Set- 
tlement had  progressed  eastward  and  northward  up  the  Kas- 
kaskia  and  the  streams  flowing  into  it  from  the  north  until  by  the 
close  of  1818  there  were  a  few  inhabitants  in  each  of  the  town- 
ships of  this  region.  The  northeastern  township,  however,  being 
mostly  prairie,  had  only  two  or  three  families  of  settlers.  South 
of  the  Kaskaskia  and  of  Crooked  creek,  in  the  modern  Washing- 
ton county,  it  is  doubtful  if  there  were  200  people.  A  few  fam- 
ilies were  living  along  the  river,  there  were  the  beginnings  of  a 
settlement  in  Plumb  Hill  precinct  near  the  center,  and  two  or 
three  families  had  established  themselves  on  the  road  from  Vin- 
cennes  to  Kaskaskia.  Most  of  the  precincts  of  the  county,  how- 
ever, did  not  receive  their  first  settlers  until  near  the  middle  of 
the  next  decade. 

When  Washington  county  was  organized  there  was  no  town 
within  its  boundaries,  and  the  county  seat  was  fixed  at  a  place 
on  the  south  side  of  the  Kaskaskia  near  the  center  of  the  county 
where  an  old  trail  from  Kaskaskia  to  Peoria  crossed  the  river. 
The  town  of  Covington  was  immediately  platted  on  the  site  "on 
a  very  extensive  and  liberal  plan,"  and  an  attempt  was  made  in 
the  convention  to  have  it  selected  for  the  capital  of  the  state. 
The  advantages  of  the  place  were  advertised  in  glowing  terms 

"History  of  Si.  Clair  County  (1881),  298;  Intelligencer,  April  I,  1818;  Ma- 
son, Narrative.  51. 


82  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

in  the  Intelligencer  of  July  I,  and  on  July  29,  the  county  com- 
missioners gave  notice  of  a  public  sale  of  lots  on  the  first  Monday 
in  September.  The  town  appears  to  have  had  very  few  settlers, 
however,  and  with  the  division  of  the  county  and  the  removal 
of  the  county  seat  it  disappeared  from  the  map.  A  more  prom- 
ising venture  was  Carlyle,  "beautifully  situated  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  Kaskaskia  river,  at  the  well  known  crossing  of  PI  ill's  Ferry 
....  having  the  great  United  States  road  from  Vincennes  to 
St.  Louis,  the  roads  from  Shawneetown,  the  Saline  and  the 
Ferries  on  the  lower  Ohio,  to  the  mouth  of  Missouri  and  the 
great  Sangamo  country  passing  thro'  its  principal  street." 
The  town  was  "laid  off  in  squares  of  two  acres,  having  its  main- 
street  75  and  its  other  streets  66  feet  in  width,  each  square  having 
an  alley  20  feet  in  width  passing  through  its  center. — A  public 
square,  church  lots,  &c."91  The  public  sale  of  lots  was  advertised 
to  begin  on  September  29,  1818,  and  the  following  year  Dana 
reported  the  town  "in  a  flourishing  condition."  A  sale  of  lots 
in  the  rival  "Town  of  Donaldson"  laid  out  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  river  "just  at  the  point  where  the  two  leading  roads  from 
the  east  to  the  west,  unite"  was  advertised  for  the  first  Monday 
in  November,  1818;  but  Donaldson  appears  to  have  been  stillborn. 
Carlyle  and  Donaldson,  like  Covington,  aspired  to  become  the 
capital  of  the  new  state. 

North  of  St.  Clair  lay  Madison  county,  with  its  present  south- 
ern and  western  boundaries ;  the  west  line,  however,  extended  to 
the  northern  boundary  of  the  state.  All  the  immense  region 
between  this  line  and  the  Mississippi  river  was  nominally  a  part 
of  the  county  but  in  only  the  three  southern  tiers  of  townships, 
about  570  square  miles,  was  land  available  for  purchase  before 
1819.  The  schedule  of  the  first  census  of  1818  lists  717  families 
in  Madison  county  with  4,516  souls,  of  whom  34  were  free 
negroes  and  77  servants  or  slaves.  This  is  only  three  less  than' 
the  population  of  St.  Clair  as  reported  in  June ;  and  including  the 
supplementary  census  of  847  as  compared  with  520  for  St.  Clair, 
Madison  becomes  the  most  populous  county  in  the  state.  The 
final  report  to  the  convention  was  6,303,  but  this  includes  980 

"Intelligencer,  September  9,  1818. 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  83 

reputed  residents  at  the  forts  in  the  Indian  country.  The  part  of 
this  population  residing  south  of  the  line  of  survey  may  be  placed 
conservatively  at  4,500,  which  would  give  to  that  region  a  density 
of  about  8  to  the  square  mile,  slightly  more  than  that  of  St.  Clair 
county.  While  settlers  were  to  be  found  in  all  parts  of  these 
townships,  the  areas  of  greatest  density  were  along  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  southwest  of  Edwardsville  where  the  so-called  Goshen 
settlement  was  located.  Toward  the  eastern  boundary  settlers 
were  less  numerous  and  were  located  mainly  in  the  vicinity  of 
Silver  creek  and  its  branches  and  along  the  road  to  Shawneetown. 

Of  especial  interest  are  the  settlements  above  the  line  of 
survey,  for  these  illustrate  the  way  in  which  the  frontier  popu- 
lation pushed  out  and  squatted  on  land  which  was  not  yet  in  the 
market  and  which  in  some  cases  had  not  yet  been  cleared  of  the 
Indian  title.  The  census  schedules  indicated  that  about  seventy 
families  were  living  in  this  region  in  the  early  summer  of  1818, 
but  the  number  was  probably  doubled  before  the  end  of  the  year. 
As  usual  on  the  extreme  frontier,  the  settlers  were  to  be  found 
principally  along  the  rivers  and  creeks.  Even  the  military  tract 
between  the  Mississippi  and  Illinois  had  a  few  inhabitants  on  the 
southern  point,  extending  north  to  about  the  middle  of  Calhoun 
county,  though  it  is  doubtful  if  any  of  them  had  secured  title 
to  the  soil.  Major  Stephen  H.  Long,  on  a  trip  down  the  Missis- 
sippi, "took  an  excursion"  across  this  peninsula  in  August,  1817, 
and  reported  :92  "There  are  five  settlements  at  this  place,  including 
two  immediately  upon  the  Mississippi  at  Little  Cape  Gris."  This 
point  was  about  twenty  miles  up  the  river  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Illinois. 

On  the  eastern  side  of  the  Illinois  adventurous  spirits  had 
pushed  as  far  north  as  Apple  creek  in  Greene  county  and  also 
up  the  tributaries  flowing  in  from  the  east,  Macoupin  creek  with 
Phill's  creek,  its  branch,  and  Otter  creek  in  Jersey  county.  The 
census  schedule  indicated  several  families  on  Macoupin  ancl 
Phill's  creeks  in  the  southeastern  part  of  Greene  and  the  north- 
eastern part  of  Jersey  counties  and  at  least  one  settler  on  the 

"Minnesota  Historical  Collections,  2 182.  On  the  location  of  Cape  au  Gris 
see  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  2  1209. 


84  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

headwaters  of  Macoupin  creek  in  what  is  now  Macoupin  county. 
There  was  probably  a  considerable  increase  during  the  summer; 
and,  if  local  tradition  is  reliable,  Macoupin  county  contained  ten 
families  when  Illinois  became  a  state.  Edmund  Dana,  who 
visited  this  region  in  the  late  summer  of  1818,  speaks  of  rinding 
sixty  families  in  the  tract  drained  by  Macoupin,  Apple,  and  Otter 
creeks  "in  the  sickly  months  of  1818."  In  another  place,  referring 
to  the  whole  region  from  Piasa  creek,  which  enters  the  Missis- 
sippi near  the  boundary  between  Madison  and  Jersey  counties, 
to  and  including  the  Macoupin  county,  he  states  that  "nearly 
120  families  had  settled  here  before  the  lands  were  surveyed," 
which  would  be  before  the  spring  of  iSip.93  On  Wood  river, 
which  enters  the  Mississippi  a  couple  of  miles  below  Alton,  the 
settlements  had  extended  north  only  a  mile  or  so  above  the  line 
of  survey,  and  there  appear  to  have  been  no  establishments  on  the 
branches  of  Cahokia  creek  above  this  line  when  the  census 
schedule  was  compiled.  Farther  east,  however,  on  Silver  creek 
there  were  settlers  within  a  mile  or  two  of  the  present  northern 
boundary  of  Madison  county. 

When  Governor  Edwards  issued  the  proclamation  establishing 
Madison  county  in  1812,  he  appointed  "the  house  of  Thomas 
Kirkpatrick  to  be  the  seat  of  justice  of  said  county."  Not  until 
1816  was  a  town  laid  out  and  given  the  name  of  Edwardsville. 
The  establishment  of  a  land  office  there  in  the  same  year  made 
it  an  important  place,  but  its  population  probably  did  not  exceed 
two  hundred  when  the  census  was  taken  in  the  early  summer  of 
1818.  The  eighteen  households  listed  which  can  definitely  be 
assigned  to  Edwardsville  comprised  166  souls.  The  composition 
of  this  population  indicates  something  of  the  character  of  the 
place  and  the  influence  of  the  land  office.  There  were  74  men, 
only  71  women  and  children,  including  all  under  twenty-one,  17 
servants  or  slaves,  and  4  free  negroes.  Eight  of  the  slaves 
belonged  to  Benjamin  Stephenson,  register  of  the  land  office, 
and  four  to  Governor  Edwards,  who  had  established  his  resi- 
dence in  the  town  named  for  him.  At  least  three  of  the  house- 

MDana,  Geographical  Sketches,  139-144.  For  another  statement  on  the  set- 
tlements in  this  region  in  1819,  see  Babcock,  Memoir  of  Peck,  155. 


MORRIS  BIRKBECK 

[From  a  copy  owned  by  H.  W.  Fay,  De  Kalb] 


COTTAGE  AT  ALBION,  BUILT  NINETY-FIVE  YEARS  AGO, 
OCCUPIED  CONTINUOUSLY,  AND  STILL  STANDING 

[Used  by  permission  of  Walter  Colyer,  Albion] 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  85 

holds,  and  probably  four,  were  taverns  at  which  dwelt  over  half 
of  the  men.  The  town  grew  rapidly  during  the  summer;  and 
Edmund  Dana,  whose  name  appears  in  the  Edwardsville  group 
in  the  census  schedule,  wrote  of  it  the  following  year  as  a  "flour- 
ishing town,  containing  60  or  70  houses,  a  court  house,  jail, 
public  bank,  printing  office,  which  issues  a  weekly  newspaper, 
and  a  United  States  land  office."  The  bank  and  the  printing 
office  did  not  exist  in  1818,  however.  In  November,  1819,  a 
traveler  described  the  place  as  "a  small  but  flourishing  little 
village."94 

The  city  of  Alton  also  had  its  beginnings  during  the  territorial 
period,  these  being  in  the  form  of  some  four  or  five  town-site 
projects.  Alton  proper  was  laid  out  in  1817  by  Colonel  Easton, 
a  St.  Louis  speculator;  but  Reverend  Thomas  Lippincott  found 
there  in  December,  1818,  only  one  cabin  besides  the  ferry  house. 
About  the  same  time  Upper  Alton  was  laid  out  on  the  bluff  and 
soon  afterward  "Alton  on  the  river"  or  Hunterstown,  was 
platted,  all  now  parts  of  the  city  of  Alton.  Larger  than  any  of 
these  in  1818,  however,  was  Milton,  about  three  miles  back  from 
the  Mississippi  on  Wood  river.  Here  were  to  be  found  a  store, 
two  sawmills,  a  gristmill,  and  a  distillery.  John  Mason  Peck, 
who  visited  Upper  Alton  in  February,  1819,  in  search  of  a  loca- 
tion for  a  boarding  school  found  "between  forty  and  fifty  fam- 
ilies, living  in  log-cabins,  shanties,  covered  wagons,  and  camps. 
Probably  not  less  than  twenty  families  were  destitute  of  houses ; 
but  were  getting  out  materials  and  getting  up  shelters  with  indus- 
try and  enterprise."  Mason,  who  was  here  in  December,  1819, 
was  struck  by  the  fact  that  "within  five  miles  there  are  five 
towns,  as  they  are  called,  but  all  insignificant  and  improperly 
placed.  Their  names  are  Milton,  Alton,  Middle  Alton,  Lower 
Alton  and  Sales."  In  another  place,  however,  he  refers  to 
Milton  as  "a  flourishing  little  village  only  one  and  a  half  years 
old."  Dana,  in  his  Geographical  Sketches  (1819)  writes  of 
Alton,  not  specifying  which  village  he  meant:  "Nearly  100 

"History  of  Madison  County  (1882),  333;  Dana,  Geographical  Sketches, 
143 ;  Mason,  Narrative,  63 ;  James,  Territorial  Records,  26. 


86  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

decent  houses  are  already  erected.  The  spirit  of  enterprise  dis- 
played by  the  settlers,  who  are  mostly  from  the  eastern  states, 
and  the  natural  advantages  attached  to  the  place,  point  out  this 
town  as  a  stand  where  small  capitals  in  trade  may  be  profitably 
vested."  Milton  he  describes  as  containing  "about  50  houses, 
and  although  it  seems  to  flourish,  it  is  considered  an  unhealthy 
situation.  The  creek  here  drives  both  a  grist  and  saw  mill ;  each 
of  which  do  great  business."95 

Filling  in  the  gap  of  24  miles  between  Madison  and  Craw- 
ford counties  was  Bond  county,  which  stretched  like  a  ribbon 
from  six  miles  south  of  the  modern  Bond  county  northward  to 
the  state  line.  Here  also  only  the  three  southern  tiers  of  town- 
ships, an  area  of  432  square  miles,  were  within  the  line  of  survey. 
The  number  of  families  living  in  the  county  in  the  early  summer 
of  1818,  according  to  the  census  schedule,  was  212,  and  the  total 
population  was  1,384,  of  whom  15  were  servants  or  slaves.  No 
supplementary  census  appears  to  have  been  taken,  but  the  final 
report  to  the  convention  was  1,398.  Nearly  all  these  people 
were  living  along  the  southward  flowing  streams  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  county.  About  four-fifths  of  them  appear  to  have 
been  within  the  surveyed  district,  which  would  make  the  density 
of  this  tract  less  than  three  to  the  square  mile.  Above  the  line 
of  survey  from  forty  to  fifty  families  established  themselves, 
mainly  on  Shoal  and  Hurricane  creeks.  Up  the  former  the  set- 
lers  had  pushed  as  far  north  as  the  vicinity  of  Hillsboro  in  Mont- 
gomery county,  and  on  Hurricane  creek  there  was  a  group  of 
settlements  in  what  is  now  Fayette  county  and  another  in  the 
southeastern  part  of  Montgomery. 

When  Bond  county  was  established  in  1817,  a  site  "on  the 
Harricane  [sic]  Fork  of  the  Kaskaskia  river,  one  mile  from  its 
junction,  and  2%  miles  from  Pope's  Bluff"  was  selected  for  the 
seat  of  justice.  This  was  in  the  southeastern  corner  of  Fayette 
county.  In  October  according  to  the  Intelligencer,  the  county 
commissioners  advertised  a  sale  of  lots  at  the  proposed  town  of 
Perryville,  but  there  was  probably  no  settlement  there  at  the  time, 
for  the  sale  was  to  take  place  "at  Hill's  Station  on  Shoal  creek." 

"Lippincott,  "Early  Days  in  Madison  County,"  nos.  2-4;  History  of  Madi- 
son County  (1881),  374-376;  Babcock,  Memoir  of  Peck,  154;  Mason,  Narra- 
tive. 64,  66 ;  Dana,  Geographical  Sketches,  142. 


EXTENT  OF  SETTLEMENT  87 

Pope's  Bluff  was  projected  at  a  site  on  the  Kaskaskia  a  mile  or 
two  above  the  mouth  of  Hurricane  creek  and  aspired  to  be  the 
capital  of  the  state.  Another  paper  town  was  Ripley  "situated 
on  Shoal  creek,  a  navigable  stream  of  the  Kaskaskia  river,  and 
about  33  miles  from  the  great  river  Mississippi  ....  There 
is  near  this  town  several  valuable  mills,  a  grist  mill  and  saw 
mill,  which  will  do  business  nearly  the  whole  year."  The  sale 
of  lots  was  to  take  place  May  30,  1818.  Ripley  was  also  a  can- 
didate for  the  location  of  the  state  capital.  None  of  these  places 
had  enough  settlers  in  1818  to  justify  its  being  termed  a  village. 
There  may  have  been  a  log  courthouse  and  a  jail  and  a  few  houses 
in  Perryville  but  the  establishment  of  Fayette  county  in  1821 
necessitated  the  removal  of  the  county  seat,  and  the  town  faded 
away. 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE    PIONEERS 

The  first  settlers  within  the  limits  of  the  present 
state  of  Illinois  were  Frenchmen,  mainly  from  Can- 
ada, who,  about  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  established  themselves  in  a  number  of  vil- 
lages on  the  American  bottom  along 
the  Mississippi  river.  During  the 
French  regime  these  people  consisted 
of  two  classes,  the  habitants,  igno- 
rant and  improvident,  engaged  largely 
in  the  fur  trade  as  voyageurs,  and  the 
gentry,  as  George  Rogers  Clark  called 
them,  many  of  whom  had  come  from 
the  better  classes  in  France  and  Can- 
ada, who  had  acquired  considerable 
property,  either  before  or  after  com- 
ing to  Illinois,  and  who  lived  lives  of  refinement  despite  their 
wilderness  surroundings.  The  disordered  conditions  in  the  Illi- 
nois country  from  the  time  of  the  British  occupation  in  1765 
until  about  the  close  of  the  century  caused  nearly  all  the  more 
enterprising  among  the  French  to  cross  the  Mississippi  to  Span- 
ish territory.  It  is  doubtful  if  there  were  more  than  fifteen  hun- 
dred people  of  French  descent  living  in  Illinois  in  1818  and 
practically  all  these  belonged  to  the  habitant  class.  Most  of  them 
were  natives  of  the  country  for  there  had  been  very  little  immi- 
gration of  Frenchmen  after  1760.  Besides  those  living  in  and 
about  the  towns  of  Cahokia,  Prairie  du  Rocher,  and  Kaskaskia, 
there  were  a  few  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  territory,  in  what  is 

(88) 


BACKWOODSMAN 

[From  Hall,  Forty  Etchings, 
owned  by  Illinois  State  Histor- 
ical Library] 


THE  PIONEERS  89 

now  Lawrence  county,  who  had  crossed  over  the  Wabash  from 
the  Vincennes  settlement.96 

A  traveler  from  Philadelphia,  who  visited  the  villages  in  the 
American  bottom  in  1819,  described  the  residents  of  Cahokia 
as  "half  French,  half  Indian,  retaining  part  of  the  manners  of 
both."  To  him  the  French  in  general  appeared  "to  be  a  wretched 
set  of  beings.  Their  great-coats  are  made  out  of  a  blanket,  with 
a  cap  or  hood  out  of  the  same  piece.  Then  moccasins  and  leggins 
complete  the  suit.  Uncover  a  Frenchman's  head  and  his  friends 
are  immediately  alarmed  for  his  health.  The  pig  pens  in  Penn- 
sylvania are  generally  as  clean  and  much  better  built  than  the 
miserable  huts  occupied  by  these  lazy  people.  In  a  state  of 
almost  starvation  they  hold  their  Gumbo  balls  twice  a  week. 
For  nimbleness  of  foot  and  lightness  of  heart  the  French  have 
never  been  surpassed."  In  Prairie  du  Rocher,  the  traveler 
found  the  houses  of  "the  most  antique  and  mean  appearance, 
built  of  the  barks  of  trees  and  puncheons,  slabs,  etc.,  often  with- 
out doors.  Their  windows  are  without  sashes,  but  small  pieces 
of  broken  glasses  of  all  shapes  pasted  ingeniously  together  with 
paper  serve  to  admit  the  light  upon  a  motley  family,  between 
white,  red  and  black.  Many  of  those  wretched  hovels  are  ready 
to  tumble  down  on  the  heads  of  starving  Indians,  French  and 
negroes,  all  mixed  together.  Negro-French  is  the  common  lan- 
guage of  this  town.  Indeed,  unless  you  can  speak  some  French 
it  is  with  much  difficulty  you  can  find  any  person  who  can  under- 
stand you."  The  writer  was  given  to  looking  on  the  dark  side 
of  the  picture,  and  in  concluding  his  narrative,  he  felt  it  neces- 
sary to  add :  "When  I  have  expressed  an  opinion  which  appears 
not  to  have  been  liberal,  it  is  intended  to  apply  to  the  lower 
clar^s,  of  whom  there  is  a  large  majority  ....  although  some 
of  the  French  are  rich,  liberal  and  gentlemanly  men,  yet  this 

"Alvord,  Cahokia  Records,  xv-xxi;  Alvord,  Illinois:  the  Origins,  9-12,  18. 
The  estimates  of  the  number  of  French  in  Illinois  are  usually  exaggerations. 
One  reminiscent  writer  states  that  in  1818  they  comprised  "nearly  a  fourth 
part  of  the  inhabitants."  Brown,  "Early  History  of  Illinois,"  in  Fergus  His- 
torical Series,  no.  14:82.  Daniel  Pope  Cook  asserted  in  1817,  however,  that 
they  made  up  only  a  tenth  of  the  population,  which  would  be  between  three 
and  four  thousand,  Intelligencer,  November  27,  1817;  while  Governor  Ford 
estimates  them  at  "some  two  thousand."  History  of  Illinois,  35. 


90  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

memorandum  is  strictly  correct  when  applied  to  the  general 
mass."91 

Governor  Ford,  who  lived  in  Monroe  county  from  1805  on, 
and  who  was  thus  in  a  position  to  observe  the  French  inhabitants, 
has  left  an  excellent  picture  of  these  people  as  he  remembered 
them.  "The  original  settlers  had  many  of  them  intermarried 
with  the  native  Indians,"  he  writes,  "and  some  of  the  descend- 
ants of  these  partook  of  the  wild,  roving  disposition  of  the 
savage,  united  to  the  politeness  and  courtesy  of  the  Frenchman. 
In  the  year  1818,  and  for  many  years  before,  the  crews  of  keel 
boats  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers  were  furnished  from 
the  Frenchmen  of  this  stock.  Many  of  them  spent  a  great  part 
of  their  time,  in  the  spring  and  fall  seasons,  in  paddling  their 
canoes  up  and  down  the  rivers  and  lakes  in  the  river  bottoms, 
on  hunting  excursions,  in  pursuit  of  deer,  fur,  and  wild  fowl, 
and  generally  returned  home  well  loaded  with  skins,  fur,  and 
feathers,  which  were  with  them  the  great  staples  of  trade. 
Those  who  stayed  at  home,  contented  themselves  with  cultivating 
a  few  acres  of  Indian  corn,  in  their  common  fields,  for  bread, 
and  providing  a  supply  of  prairie  hay  for  their  cattle  and  horses. 
No  genuine  Frenchman,  in  those  days,  ever  wore  a  hat,  cap,  or 
coat.  The  heads  of  both  men  and  women  were  covered  with 
Madras  cotton  handkerchiefs,  which  were  tied  around,  in  the 
fashion  of  night-caps.  For  an  upper  covering  of  the  body  the 
men  wore  a  blanket  garment,  called  a  'capot,'  (pronounced 
cappo)  with  a  cap  to  it  at  the  back  of  the  neck,  to  be  drawn  over 
the  head  for  a  protection  in  cold  weather,  or  in  warm  weather 
to  be  thrown  back  upon  the  shoulders  in  the  fashion  of  a  cape. 
Notwithstanding  this  people  had  been  so  long  separated  by  an 
immense  wilderness  from  civilized  society,  they  still  retained  all 
the  suavity  and  politeness  of  their  race.  And  it  is  a  remarkable 
fact,  that  the  roughest  hunter  and  boatman  amongst  them  could 
at  any  time  appear  in  a  ballroom,  or  other  polite  and  gay 
assembly,  with  the  carriage  and  behavior  of  a  well-bred  gentle- 
man. The  French  women  were  remarkable  for  the  sprightliness 
of  their  conversation  and  the  grace  and  elegance  of  their  manners. 

"Mason,  Narrative,  53-56,  74. 


THE  PIONEERS  91 

And  the  whole  population  lived  lives  of  alternate  toil,  pleasure, 
innocent  amusement,  and  gaity. 

"Their  horses  and  cattle,  for  want  of  proper  care  and  food  for 
many  generations,  had  degenerated  in  size,  but  had  acquired  addi- 
tional vigor  and  toughness ;  so  that  a  French  pony  was  a  proverb 
for  strength  and  endurance.  These  ponies  were  made  to  draw, 
sometimes  one  alone,  sometimes  two  together,  one  hitched  before 
the  other,  to  the  plough,  or  to  carts  made  entirely  of  wood,  the 
bodies  of  which  held  about  double  the  contents  of  the  body  of  a 
common  large  wheel-barrow.  The  oxen  were  yoked  by  the 
horns  instead  of  the  neck,  and  in  this  mode  were  made  to  draw 
the  plough  and  cart.  Nothing  like  reins  were  ever  used  in  driv- 
ing; the  whip  of  the  driver,  with  a  handle  about  two  feet,  and  a 
lash  two  yards  long,  stopped  or  guided  the  horse  as  effectually 
as  the  strongest  reins. 

"The  French  houses  were  mostly  built  of  hewn  timber,  set 
upright  in  the  ground,  or  upon  plates  laid  upon  a  wall,  the  inter- 
vals between  the  upright  pieces  being  filled  with  stone  and  mortar. 
Scarcely  any  of  them  were  more  than  one  story  high,  with  a 
porch  on  one  or  two  sides,  and  sometimes  all  around,  with  low 
roofs  extending  with  slopes  of  different  steepness  from  the  comb 
in  the  centre  to  the  lowest  part  of  the  porch.  These  houses  were 
generally  placed  in  gardens,  surrounded  by  fruit-trees  of  apples, 
pears,  cherries,  and  peaches;  and  in  the  villages  each  enclosure 
for  a  house  and  garden  occupied  a  whole  block  or  square,  or  the 
greater  part  of  one.  Each  village  had  its  Catholic  church  and 
priest.  The  church  was  the  great  place  of  gay  resort  on  Sun- 
days and  holidays,  and  the  priest  was  the  adviser  and  director 
and  companion  of  all  his  flock." 

Unlike  the  American  settlers,  most  of  whom  lived  on  isolated 
farms,  the  French  lived  close  together  in  their  village  commu- 
nities, where  they  could  enjoy  the  society  of  their  fellows  and  the 
privileges  of  their  religion.  Despite  the  abundance  of  land,  the 
common  field  system  of  agriculture  had  been  transplanted  from 
France,  and  outside  each  village  was  to  be  found  the  commons 
of  woodland  and  pasture  for  the  whole  village  and  the  common 
field  with  its  long  narrow  strips  of  arable  land  allotted  to  the 


92  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

individual  inhabitants  of  the  village.  Originally  the  conduct  of 
agricultural  operations  had  been  regulated  by  village  assemblies, 
held  usually  on  Sundays  before  the  door  of  the  church  and 
presided  over  by  a  syndic  elected  by  the  inhabitants.  By  1818, 
however,  the  influx  of  Americans  in  some  of  the  villages  and  the 
purchase  by  them  of  allotments  had  introduced  an  element  of 
confusion,  and  legislative  enactments  were  necessary  to  adjust 
the  system  to  the  changed  conditions.98 

Forming  as  they  did  so  small  a  proportion  of  the  population,  it 
is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  French  would  play  any  considerable 
part  in  the  political  and  economic  development  of  Illinois.  The 
conflict  between  the  two  elements,  French  and  American,  for  the 
control  of  the  Illinois  country  had  ended  a  generation  before  1818 ; 
and  the  unprogressive  French,  who  remained  in  the  American  bot- 
tom after  that  contest  was  over,  understood  little  of  American 
ideals  and  took  practically  no  part  in  the  successive  territorial 
governments."  Only  one  French  name  is  to  be  found  in  the  lists 
of  officeholders  during  this  period,  that  of  Pierre  Menard ;  and  he 
was  a  recent  arrival  from  Canada.  Although  their  influence 
upon  the  development  of  the  state  was  so  slight  that  it  may  be 
disregarded,  the  French  continued  to  form  for  many  years  a 
picturesque  element  in  the  population  of  Illinois.100 

The  American  occupation  of  Illinois  may  be  said  to  have  begun 
with  the  advent  of  traders  and  land  speculators  from  the  eastern 
colonies  during  the  British  regime,  1765  to  1778.  The  occupa- 
tion of  the  French  villages  by  George  Rogers  Clark  and  his 
troops  during  the  revolution  introduced  a  new  element,  for  a 
number  of  Virginians  became  permanent  settlers  in  the  country. 
It  was  only  very  slowly  that  emigrants  drifted  in  from  the  east 
during  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century;  and  while 
there  was  a  decided  increase  in  population  from  1800  to  1810, 
2,458  to  12,282,  the  outbreak  of  Indian  hostilities  in  1811,  fol- 

"Brown,  "Early  History  of  Illinois,"  in  Fergus  Historical  Series,  no.  14: 
83;  Thorpe,  Constitutions,  2:981-982;  Laws  of  1819,  p.  122;  American  State 
Papers,  Public  Lands,  3 1432 ;  Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  36-37. 

"Alvord,  Cahokia  Records,  introduction ;  Dunn,  Indiana,  270. 

100For  a  description  of  the  French  villages  and  their  inhabitants  in  1836, 
see  Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels,  27:19-121. 


THE  PIONEERS  93 

lowed  by  the  war  of  1812,  almost  completely  checked  emigra- 
tion to  the  whole  northwestern  frontier.  With  the  advent  of 
peace  in  1815  and  the  opening  of  the  land  sales  in  1814  and 
1816,  immigration  received  a  great  impetus,  and  Illinois  expe- 
rienced her  first  real  "boom."  By  this  time  the  choice  loca- 
tions in  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Kentucky  had  either  been  rilled  by 
settlers  or  bought  up  by  speculators,  and  consequently  Illinois 
and  Missouri  became  a  veritable  promised  land  for  emigrants. 
From  a  population  of  approximately  15,000  in  1815  Illinois 
had  by  midsummer  of  1818  increased  to  a  population  of  about 
35,000,  and  by  the  end  of  the  year  she  had  almost  if  not  quite 
40,000.  The  Illinois  of  1818  was,  then,  a  very  new  community. 
Less  than  half  the  inhabitants  had  lived  there  three  years,  and  not 
quite  a  third  had  been  in  the  region  as  long  as  ten  years.  For 
only  four  years  had  it  been  possible  to  purchase  government 
land  in  the  territory  and  for  only  two  years  had  such  land  been 
available  to  newcomers  outside  the  Shawneetown  district.101 

Who  were  these  people  who  flocked  to  southern  Illinois  in 
such  numbers  in  the  last  years  of  the  territorial  period?  Where 
did  they  come  from  and  what  manner  of  people  were  they? 
Why  did  they  leave  their  former  homes  and  why  did  they  select 
Illinois  for  their  new  home?  To  none  of  these  questions  can 
simple  definite  answers  be  given,  but  some  evidence  can  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  them.  From  the  schedules  of  the  census 
of  1818,  supplemented  by  poll  lists,  petitions,  and  other  reliable 
records,  it  has  been  possible  to  compile  a  list  of  the  names  of 
6,020  people  resident  in  Illinois  in  the  year  1818,  nearly  all  of 
whom  were  heads  of  families.102  From  county  histories  and  all 
other  available  sources,  information  about  the  birthplace  or 
former  residence  of  716,  or  nearly  twelve  per  cent  of  those  thus 
listed,  has  been  secured.  Generalization  based  upon  so  small  a 
proportion  cannot  be  altogether  reliable,  but  it  is  believed  that 
the  figures  throw  some  light  on  the  antecedents  of  the  people 
who  were  living  in  Illinois  in  the  year  in  which  it  became  a 
state. 

mBoggess,  Settlement  of  Illinois,  chs.  3,  4.  On  the  land  sales  see  above, 
P-  49-54- 

|°*It  is  expected  that  this  list  with  such  data  as  is  available  about  the  in- 
dividuals will  be  published  shortly  by  the  Illinois  State  Historical  Library. 


94  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

Combining  data  as  to  nativity  with  that  for  earliest  known 
residence  when  birthplace  is  unknown,  it  appears  that  273  or 
thirty-eight  per  cent  of  those  of  known  antecedents  came  from 
the  southern  states,  Virginia  being  credited  with  94,  North  Caro- 
lina with  84,  South  Carolina  with  40,  Georgia  with  29,  and 
Maryland  with  26.  Almost  the  same  number,  267,  or  thirty- 
seven  per  cent,  were  from  the  western  states.  One  hundred 
and  fifty,  or  over  half  of  them  came  from  Kentucky;  this  is  a 


FLAX  AND  SPINNING  WHEELS 

[Originals  owned  by  W.  O.  Converse,  Springfield] 

larger  number  than  is  credited  to  any  other  state.  Tennessee 
contributed  82,  Ohio  23,  Indiana  9,  and  Illinois  3.103  From  the 
middle  states  came  91  or  thirteen  per  cent;  47  from  Pennsyl- 
vania, 36  from  New  York,  6  from  New  Jersey,  and  2  from 
Delaware.  Only  19,  or  three  per  cent,  were  from  New  Eng- 
land, Massachusetts  and  Vermont  being  credited  with  6  each, 
Connecticut  and  New  Hampshire  with  3  each,  and  Rhode 
Island  with  i.  The  remaining  66,  or  nine  per  cent,  were  for- 
eign born,  40  coming  from  England,  10  from  Ireland,  5  each 

""Obviously  the  proportion  of  3  to  716  is  too  small  for  the  native  born 
if  the  French  are  taken  into  consideration.  Very  few  of  them  are  included 
in  the  list,  however,  because  specific  information  about  individuals  is  lacking. 


THE  PIONEERS  95 

from  Germany  and  Canada,  4  from  France,  and  2  from  Scot- 
land. Including  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  with  the  southern 
states,  the  totals  show  that  505  or  seventy-one  per  cent  came 
from  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  and  the  Ohio  river,  as 
compared  with  the  142  or  twenty  per  cent  who  came  from  the 
north  and  northwest. 

A  study  of  the  movements  of  individual  immigrants  dis- 
closes the  fact  that  a  surprisingly  large  number  had  made  one 
or  two  other  moves  before  coming  to  Illinois.  If  there  are 
added  to  those  counted  above  as  coming  from  the  western 
states  those  who  came  to  Illinois  from  these  states  but  are 
known  to  have  been  born  elsewhere,  the  total  becomes  385  or 
fifty-four  per  cent.  Of  this  number  only  60  are  known  to  have 
been  born  in  the  west;  118  are  known  to  have  been  born  else- 
where; 89  in  the  southern  states;  16  in  the  north;  and  13  abroad. 
Assigning  the  remaining  207,  whose  birthplace  is  unknown,  to 
the  respective  sections  in  the  same  proportions  produces  the  fol- 
lowing revised  figures:  from  the  old  south,  fifty-three  per  cent; 
from  the  west,  eighteen  per  cent;  from  the  north,  eighteen  per 
cent;  and  from  abroad,  eleven  per  cent.  This  may  be  taken 
as  representing  roughly  the  nativity  of  the  716  inhabitants  of 
known  antecedents,  and  therefore  as  an  indication  of  the  sources 
of  the  population  of  Illinois  in  1818. 

The  outstanding  conclusions  from  this  investigation  are :  first, 
that  about  half  .the  heads  of  families  in  Illinois  in  1818  had  been 
born  in  the  five  states  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  and  South 
Carolina,  and  Georgia;  and  secondly,  that  about  the  same  pro- 
portion had  come  to  Illinois  directly  from  the  four  western 
states  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee,  principally 
from  the  latter  two.  Most  of  the  immigrants  from  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee  who  had  been  born  there,  moreover,  were  de- 
scendants of  natives  of  the  old  southern  states.  It  would  prob- 
ably be  a  safe  generalization,  therefore,  to  say  that  two-thirds  of 
the  people  of  Illinois  at  this  time  belonged  to  southern  stock, 
while  the  numbers  with  New  England  or  middle  states  ante- 
cedents only  slightly  exceeded  those  of  foreign  birth.  This  coin- 
cides with  the  impression  to  be  gained  from  contemporary  and 


96  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

reminiscent  writers.  Two  of  the  correspondents  to  the  Intelli- 
gencer during  the  convention  campaign  indicate  that,  in  their 
opinion,  immigration  up  to  that  time  had  been  principally  from 
the  southern  states.104  William  H.  Brown  states  that  "the 
early  inhabitants  of  Illinois  were  composed  of  the  French  Cana- 
dians ....  and  immigrants  from  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and 
North  Carolina,"  while  Governor  Ford  speaks  of  the  American 
inhabitants  as  "chiefly  from  Kentucky,  Virginia,  and  Pennsyl- 
vania." Reynolds  states  that  they  "were  almost  entirely  emi- 
grants from  the  Western  States;  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Vir- 
ginia, and  some  from  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland."  Accord- 
ing to  Robert  W.  Patterson,  "the  families  in  the  country,  were 
generally  of  Southern  origin,  many  of  them  having  come  orig- 
inally from  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  to  Tennessee,  Kentucky, 
and  Ohio,  and  thence  to  Illinois."105  Later  writers,  also,  have 
reached  the  same  conclusion,  adducing  as  evidence,  in  addition  to 
the  testimony  of  contemporaries,  the  fact  that  most  of  the  po- 
litical leaders  during  the  territorial  period  and  the  early  years 
of  statehood  were  natives  of  the  south.108 

It  is  not  a  sufficient  identification  of  these  people,  however,  to 
say  that  they  came  from  the  south,  for  the  south  was  far  from 
being  a  homogeneous  section.  Westward  of  the  tidewater 
and  plantation  area  along  the  Atlantic  coast  was  a  region  of 
uplands  and  mountain  valleys  stretching  across  state  boundaries 
from  Pennsylvania  to  Georgia,  the  population  of  which  differed 
materially  in  origin  and  characteristics  from  the  occupants  of 
the  tidewater  section;  it  was  from  this  stock  that  the  bulk  of 
the  "southern"  people  in  Illinois  came.  The  evidence  for  this  is 
to  be  found  not  only  in  the  biographical  and  genealogical  data 
available  in  the  county  histories,  but  also  in  the  names  of  heads 
of  families  in  the  schedules  of  the  census  of  1818.  A  large 

1<H"A  republican,"  Daniel  P.  Cook,  in  Intelligencer,  April  i,  1818,  and  "Cau- 
tion," in  ibid.,  April  15,  1818. 

""Brown,  "An  Historical  Sketch  of  the  Early  Movement  in  Illinois  for 
the  Legalization  of  Slavery,"  in  Fergus  Historical  Series,  no.  4:9;  Reynolds, 
My  Own  Times,  65 ;  Patterson,  "Early  Society  in  Southern  Illinois,"  in  Fer- 
gus Historical  Series,  no.  14:105. 

lMJohns  Hopkins  University  Studies,  I  :pt.  3,  p.  9 ;  Illinois  State  Historical 
Society,  Transactions,  1903,  p.  75;  Boggess,  Settlement  of  Illinois,  145; 
Mathews,  Expansion  of  New  England,  206-207. 


THE  PIONEERS  97 

proportion  of  these  names  are  typically  Scotch-Irish,  Welsh,  or 
German,  with  Scotch-Irish  predominating;  and  thus  they  are 
indicative  of  the  connection  of  the  people  with  that  stream  of 
non-English  immigrants  which  poured  into  Pennsylvania  during 
the  eighteenth  century  and  thence  up  the  valleys  and  through 
the  gaps  to  the  back  country  of  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and 
Georgia.  By  the  time  of  the  revolution,  the  occupation  of  this 
region  had  been  completed  and  the  stream  began  to  flow  into 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  In  the  early  decades  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  it  progressed  into  southern  Indiana,  Illinois,  and 
Missouri. 

A  striking  characteristic  of  these  people  was  their  love  of 
the  frontier.  From  the  time  it  appeared  on  the  continent  their 
strain  had  been  in  the  vanguard  of  settlement.  As  frontier 
conditions  passed  away  in  one  place,  they  packed  up  their  few 
possessions  and  pushed  farther  into  the  interior.  Few  sons 
were  born  in  the  same  locality  that  their  fathers  had  been;  few 
men  died  near  where  they  had  been  born.  Probably  a  majority 
of  those  in  Illinois  in  1818  had  made  at  least  one  move  before 
coming  to  the  territory,  and  many,  located  near  the  border  of 
settled  area,  had  advanced  from  more  southern  locations 
within  the  territory.  These  people  were  true  pioneers;  they 
had  become  experts  in  grappling  with  frontier  conditions.  As 
Morris  Birkbeck  wrote  of  them,  "to  struggle  with  privations 
has  now  become  the  habit  of  their  lives,  most  of  them  having 
made  several  successive  plunges  into  the  wilderness."107  They 
blazed  the  trail  for  the  more  permanent  settlers  who  were  to 
follow;  always,  of  course,  a  part  of  them  dropped  out  of  the 
procession  and  became  permanent  settlers  themselves.  Essen- 
tially, then,  these  people  were  westerners  rather  than  south- 
erners. 

Neglecting  to  make  this  distinction,  various  writers  have 
sought  for  the  causes  of  this  migration  from  the  south  to  the 
northwest  in  the  social  and  economic  conditions  of  the  south. 
Opposition  to  slavery,  the  pressure  of  the  plantation  system  on 
the  small  farms,  and  the  desire  for  social  equality,  have  been 

"'Birkbeck,  Notes  on  a  Journey,  121. 


98  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

assigned  as  causes;  and  doubtless  these  were  factors  which 
prompted  many  individuals.  But  in  general  the  real  explana- 
tion is  to  be  found  in  the  irresistible  attraction  which  the  wilder- 
ness exerted  upon  these  people.  They  were  essentially  frontiers- 
men; they  preferred  life  in  the  woods  to  that  in  the  busy  haunts 
of  men;  and  they  felt  themselves  cramped  and  crowded  in  any 
except  the  most  thinly  populated  regions.  Then,  too,  they  had 
a  restless  hope  of  finding  something  better  a  little  farther  on; 
they  were  always  ready  to  take  a  sportsman's  chance  on  the  un- 
known. As  Morris  Birkbeck,  the  Englishman,  wrote :  "They  are 
also  a  migrating  people;  and  even  when  in  prosperous  circum- 
stances, can  contemplate  a  change  of  situation,  which  under  our 
old  establishments  and  fixed  habits,  none,  but  the  most  enterpris- 
ing, would  venture  upon,  when  urged  by  adversity."108  It  was  not 
so  much  positive  dissatisfaction  with  conditions  existing  in  their 
old  communities,  then,  as  the  force  of  habit  and  the  hope  of 
bettering  themselves  economically,  that  prompted  the  migration. 

No  description  of  these  pioneers  from  the  south  can  be  ade- 
quate unless  it  takes  into  account  the  existence  of  different  types 
among  them.  Although  possessing  some  characteristics  in  com- 
mon, even  these  varied  in  degree;  and  statements  of  contem- 
porary writers  who  have  a  particular  class  in  mind  can  not  be 
applied  indiscriminately  to  all  the  pioneers.  Among  the  best 
observers  of  pioneer  settlers  were  some  of  the  leaders  of  the 
English  settlement,  who  were  careful  to  discriminate  between 
the  different  types.  Fordham  divided  the  people  on  the  frontier 
into  four  classes,  "not  perfectly  distinct  yet  easily  distinguish- 
able."109 To  the  first  two  of  these  classes  belonged  the  bulk  of 
the  element  under  consideration. 

"ist.  The  hunters,  a  daring,  hardy,  race  of  men,  who  live 
in  miserable  cabins,  which  they  fortify  in  times  of  War  with 
the  Indians,  whom  they  hate  but  much  resemble  in  dress  and 
manners.  They  are  unpolished,  but  hospitable,  kind  to 
Strangers,  honest  and  trustworthy.  They  raise  a  little  Indian 
corn,  pumpkins,  hogs,  and  sometimes  have  a  Cow  or  two,  and  two 

*°*Birkbeck,  Notes  on  a  Journey,  36. 
10*Ogg,  Fordham' 's  Personal  Narrative,  125. 


THE  PIONEERS  99 

or  three  horses  belonging  to  each  family :  But  their  rifle  is  their 
principal  means  of  support.  They  are  the  best  marksmen  in  the 
world,  and  such  is  their  dexterity  that  they  will  shoot  an  apple 
off  the  head  of  a  companion.  Some  few  use  the  bow  and  arrow. 
I  have  spent  7  or  8  weeks  with  these  men,  have  had  opportuni- 
ties of  trying  them,  and  believe  they  would  sooner  give  me  the 
last  shirt  off  their  backs,  than  rob  me  of  a  charge  of  powder. 
Their  wars  with  the  Indians  have  made  them  vindictive.  This 
class  cannot  be  called  first  Settlers,  for  they  move  every  year 
or  two. 

"2d  class.  First  settlers; — a  mixed  set  of  hunters  and 
farmers.  They  possess  more  property  and  comforts  than  the 
first  class,  yet  they  are  a  half  barbarous  race.  They  follow  the 
range  pretty  much;  selling  out  when  the  Country  begins  to  be 
well  settled,  and  their  cattle  cannot  be  entirely  kept  in  the  woods." 

The  description  and  classification  of  these  people  by  George 
Flower  is  especially  interesting.  "These  original  backwoods- 
men," he  writes,  "look  upon  all  new-comers  as  obtruders  on 
their  especial  manorial  rights.  The  old  hunters'  rule  is:  when 
you  hear  the  sound  of  a  neighbor's  gun,  it  is  time  to  move  away." 
He  found  "all  of  this  class  of  men,  who  live  in  solitude  and 
commune  so  much  with  nature,  relying  on  their  own  efforts  to 
support  themselves  and  their  families,  to  be  calm,  deliberate,  and 
self-possessed  whenever  they  are  sober.  The  best  breeding  in 
society  could  not  impart  to  them  more  self-possession  or  give 
them  greater  ease  of  manner  or  more  dignified  and  courteous 
bearing."  Flower  acknowledges  the  services  of  representatives 
of  this  class  to  the  English  settlers :  "Dextrous  with  the  ax,  they 
built  all  our  first  log-cabins,  and  supplied  us  with  venison.  In  a 
year  or  two,  they  moved  into  less-peopled  regions,  or  to  where 
there  were  no  people  at  all,  and  were  entirely  lost  to  this  part 
of  the  country."  These  men  derived  their  means  of  livelihood 
principally  from  hunting,  and  devoted  very  little  attention  to 
farming.  Some,  however,  says  Flower,  "follow  a  different  des- 
tiny. Their  little  corn-patch  increases  to  a  field,  their  first  shanty 
to  a  small  log-house,  which,  in  turn,  gives  place  to  a  double- 
cabin,  in  which  the  loom  and  spinning-wheel  are  installed.  A 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


neighbourhood  is  hu«u,  SSSKmES?  "  ^ 


a  more  extensive  tract  of  land,  or  commence  far 
on  a  larger  scale  than  formerly.     The  next  occupier  is  a 


"Flower,  English  Settlement,  67-72 
mThwaites, 


JOHN  EDGAR 

[From  original  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society 


THE  PIONEERS  101 

italist,  who  immediately  builds  a  larger  barn  than  the  former, 
and  then  a  brick  or  a  frame  house.  He  either  pulls  down  the 
dwelling  of  his  predecessor,  or  converts  it  into  a  stable.  He  erects 
better  fences,  and  enlarges  the  quantity  of  cultivated  land ;  sows 
down  pasture  fields,  introduces  an  improved  stock  of  horses,  cat- 
tle, sheep,  and  these  probably  of  the  Merino  breed.  He  fattens 
cattle  for  the  market,  and  perhaps  erects  a  flour-mill,  or  a  saw- 
mill, or  a  distillery.  Farmers  of  this  description  are  frequently 
partners  in  the  banks;  members  of  the  State  assembly,  or  of 
Congress,  or  Justices  of  the  Peace The  three  con- 
ditions of  settlers  described,  are  not  to  be  understood  as  uni- 
formly distinct;  for  there  are  intermediate  stages,  from  which 
individuals  of  one  class  pass,  as  it  were,  into  another.  The  first 
invaders  of  the  forest  frequently  become  farmers  of  the  second 
order;  and  there  are  examples  of  individuals  acting  their  parts 
in  all  the  three  gradations." 

While  it  is  true  that  some  of  the  backwoodsmen  or  their  de- 
scendants occasionally  became  men  of  prominence  and  of  in- 
fluence in  the  community,  as  a  rule  the  leaders  in  the  movements 
for  the  political  and  economic  development  of  the  territory  be- 
longed to  a  different  class.  The  majority  of  them  were  south- 
erners also,  but  their  antecedents  went  back  usually  to  the  planter 
class  of  the  tidewater  region.  As  was  the  case  with  the  frontiers- 
men, many  of  them  had  lived  in  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  or  In- 
diana, before  locating  in  Illinois.  A  few  migrated  because  of  a 
dislike  of  the  institution  of  slavery,  many  were  brought  in  to 
fill  appointive  offices  during  the  territorial  period,  others  sought 
opportunity  for  political  advancement  and  the  practice  of  their 
professions  in  a  new  country,  while  all  of  them  expected  to  make 
fortunes  by  speculating  in  land.  A  smaller  number  of  the  lead- 
ers were  from  the  middle  states  and  New  England  and  their  in- 
fluence was  slowly  increasing.  These  men  of  influence  were 
usually  fairly  well  educated  and  possessed  of  a  moderate  amount 
of  property;  but,  above  all,  they  were  ambitious  for  themselves 
and  for  the  country.  They  formed  the  third  group  of  Ford- 
ham's  classification — "composed  of  enterprising  men  from 
Kentucky  and  the  Atlantic  States.  This  class  consists  of  Young 


102  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

Doctors,  Lawyers,  Storekeepers,  farmers,  mechanics,  &c.,  who 
found  towns,  trade,  speculate  in  land,  and  begin  the  fabric  of  So- 
ciety."112 Most  of  them  lived  in  or  near  one  of  the  land  office 
towns,  Kaskaskia,  Shawneetown,  or  Edwardsville,  but  a  few 
were  to  be  found  located  in  the  smaller  settlements. 

Besides  the  settlers  of  German  antecedents  who  had  come  to 
Illinois  by  way  of  the  south,  there  were  a  number  of  Germans 
who  had  come  directly  from  Pennsylvania.  One  early  writer, 
indeed,  classified  the  settlers  as  "French,  Pennsylvania  Dutch 
and  native  American."  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  French  and 
the  "Dutch"  were  practically  all  native  born  Americans,  but  the 
classification  is  a  rather  significant  commentary  on  those  Ger- 
mans who,  by  isolating  themselves,  kept  for  so  long  their  pe- 
culiar characteristics.  Even  when  they  migrated  to  Illinois 
they  manifested  a  tendency  to  keep  together.  The  principal  set- 
tlement of  Pennsylvania  Germans  was  in  and  near  Brownsville 
in  Jackson  county  where  Dr.  Conrad  Will,  their  leading  repre- 
sentative, established  himself  in  1815.  A  number  of  families 
from  Somerset  county,  Pennsylvania,  came  under  the  leadership 
of  Singleton  Kimmel  in  1817;  and  John  Ankeny,  a  relative  of 
Kimmel,  brought  out  eight  or  ten  families  early  in  1818.  Of 
these  people,  the  writer  before  referred  to,  says:  "They  were 
industrious,  though  not  enterprising  people,  usually  farmers  of 
moderate  means,  who  lived  comfortably,  and  kept  their  associa- 
tions mainly  among  themselves."118  As  for  the  real  foreigners, 
there  were  a  few  scattered  in  all  parts  of  the  settled  area.  With 
the  exception  of  the  English,  who  will  be  considered  later,  they 
had  generally  been  in  America  for  some  time  before  coming  to 
Illinois;  and  being  mainly  Scotch-Irish  and  Germans,  they  were 

mFordham  lists  a  fourth  class,  also,  not  clearly  distinguishable  from  the 
third :  "old  settlers,  rich,  independent,  farmers,  wealthy  merchants,  possess- 
ing a  good  deal  of  information,  a  knowledge  of  the  world,  and  an  enterprising 
spirit.  Such  are  the  Ohio  men,  Western  Pennsylvanians,  Kentuckians  and 

Tennessee  men They  undertake  with  facility,  and  carry  on  with 

unconquerable  ardour,  any  business  or  speculation  that  promises  great  profit, 
and  sustain  the  greatest  losses  with  a  firmness  that  resembles  indifference." 
Ogg,  Fordham's  Personal  Narrative,  126. 

M*Patterson,  "Early  Society  in  Southern  Illinois,"  in  Fergus  Historical 
Series,  no.  14:104;  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1905,  p.  351- 
377;  P.  Kimmel  to  Pope,  December  22,  1817,  in  United  States  State  Depart- 
ment, Bureau  of  Indexes  and  Archives,  "Miscellaneous  Letters." 


THE  PIONEERS  103 

scarcely  distinguishable  from  the  frontiersmen  already  described. 
Robert  Reynolds,  for  example,  emigrated  from  Ireland  to  Penn- 
sylvania in  1785,  moved  to  Tennessee  in  1788,  and  from  there  to 
Illinois  in  1800.  George  Barnsback  came  from  Germany  to 
America  in  1797,  and  had  lived  in  Philadelphia  and  in  Kentucky 
before  moving  to  Illinois  in  1809."* 

The  closing  years  of  the  territorial  period  saw  the  beginning  of 
a  settlement  of  foreigners  that  was  unique  not  only  in  Illinois 
but  in  the  whole  west — the  English  settlement  in  Edwards 
county.  The  men  who  planned  this  enterprise,  selected  the  site, 
directed  the  emigration,  and  established  the  settlement,  were 
George  Flower  and  Morris  Birkbeck.  Men  of  education  and 
means,  their  purpose  was  partly  philanthropic — to  provide  bet- 
ter opportunities  for  English  laborers.  Economic  and  political 
conditions  in  England  following  the  close  of  the  Napoleonic  wars 
were  such  that  emigration  to  the  United  States  began  to  assume 
large  proportions  and  these  men  planned  to  point  the  way  for 
their  countrymen  and  to  assist  them  in  establishing  themselves 
in  the  new  world.  The  reasons  which  led  them,  after  a  careful 
survey  of  the  United  States,  to  select  the  prairie  land  between 
Bon  Pas  creek  and  the  Little  Wabash  river  for  their  place  of 
settlement  are  of  considerable  interest. 

When  Morris  Birkbeck  arrived  in  the  United  States  in  May, 
1817,  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  locate  in  western  Pennsylvania, 
Ohio,  Indiana,  or  Illinois ;  farther  north  he  would  not  go  be- 
cause of  the  climate,  and  the  south  had  no  attractions  for  him 
because  of  his  abhorrence  of  the  institution  of  slavery.115  In 
Richmond,  Virginia,  Birkbeck  was  joined  by  Flower,  who  had 
been  traveling  in  the  United  States  for  about  a  year;  and  the 
two  men,  accompanied  by  Birkbeck's  family,  started  on  a  tour  of 
exploration  to  the  west.116  The  rough  conditions  of  the  frontier 
had  no  such  attraction  for  the  English  emigrants  as  they  had 
for  the  American  pioneers,  but  the  opportunity  to  purchase  land 

"'Reynolds,  My  Own  Times,  6-7,  24,  31 ;  Illustrated  Encyclopedia  of  Madi- 
son County  (1873),  47. 

""Birkbeck,  Notes  on  a  Journey,  6-7. 

"'For  accounts  of  this  tour,  see  ibid.;  Flower,  English  Settlement,  ch.  3. 
Elias  Pym  Fordham,  a  cousin  of  Flower,  joined  the  party  at  Cincinnati. 
Ogg,  Fordham's  Personal  Narrative,  94-99. 


104  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

in  unlimited  quantities  at  a  low  price  appealed  to  them  very  much. 
Land  ownership  was  the  measure  of  social  and  political  position 
in  England ;  and,  to  Birkbeck  and  Flower,  who  although  men  of 
considerable  means  had  in  England  only  been  tenants  of  their 
farms  on  long-time  leases,  the  possibility  of  possessing  large 
estates  of  their  own  had  been  one  of  the  principal  reasons  for 
their  coming  to  America.  The  prospect  of  more  liberal  political 
institutions  held  forth  considerable  attractions,  especially  to 
Birkbeck,  but  the  leading  motive  in  the  formation  of  the  settle- 
ment was  the  desire  to  enjoy,  not  so  much  the  political  liberty  of 
the  United  States,  as  the  liberty  to  be  "found  in  its  great  space 
and  small  population.  Good  land  dog-cheap  everywhere,  and  for 
nothing,  if  you  will  go  far  enough  for  it."117 

The  part  which  the  land  situation  played  in  inducing  Flower 
and  Birkbeck  to  select  a  site  on  the  frontier  in  Illinois  instead  of 
in  one  of  the  more  settled  states  to  the  eastward  is  explained  by 
Birkbeck  in  a  letter  written  in  November,  1817,  a  few  months 
after  the  decision  had  been  made.  "Had  we  remained  in  the 
state  of  Ohio,"  he  wrote,  "we  must  have  paid  from  twenty  to 
fifty  dollars  per  acre  for  land  which  is  technically  called  'im- 
proved/ but  is  in  fact  deteriorated ;  or  have  purchased,  at  an  ad- 
vance of  1000  or  1500  per  cent,  unimproved  land  from  specula- 
tors: and  in  either  case  should  have  laboured  under  the  incon- 
venience of  settling  detached  from  society  of  our  own  choice,  and 
without  the  advantage  of  choice  as  to  soil  or  situation.  We  saw 
many  eligible  sites  and  fine  tracts  of  country,  but  these  were 
precisely  the  sites  and  the  tracts  which  had  secured  the  attach- 
ment of  their  possessors. 

"It  was  in  fact  impossible  to  obtain  for  ourselves  a  good  posi- 
tion, and  the  neighbourhood  of  our  friends,  in  the  state  of  Ohio, 
at  a  price  which  common  prudence  would  justify,  or  indeed  at 
any  price.  Having  given  up  the  Ohio,  we  found  nothing  attrac- 
tive on  the  eastern  side  of  Indiana;  and  situations  to  the  south, 
on  the  Ohio  river  bounding  that  state,  were  so  well  culled  as  to 
be  in  the  predicament  above  described ;  offering  no  room  for  us 

"'Flower,  English  Settlement,  29.  See  also  Birkbeck,  Letters  from  Illi- 
nois, 46-50;  Ogg,  Fordham's  Personal  Narrative,  122,  226;  Thwaites,  Early 
Western  Travels,  9:174;  11:231. 


GEORGE  FLOWER 

[From  original  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 


THE  PIONEERS  105 

without  great  sacrifices  of  money  and  society.  The  western 
side  of  Indiana,  on  the  banks  of  the  Wabash,  is  liable  to  the  same 
and  other  objections.  The  northern  part  of  Indiana  is  still  in 
possession  of  the  Indians. 

"But  a  few  miles  farther  west  opened  our  way  into  a  country 
preferable  in  itself  to  any  we  had  seen,  where  we  could  choose 
for  ourselves,  and  to  which  we  could  invite  our  friends;  and 
where,  in  regard  to  communication  with  Europe,  we  could  com- 
mand equal  facilities,  and  foresee  greater,  than  in  the  state  of 
Ohio,  being  so  much  nearer  the  grand  outlet  at  New  Orleans."118 

The  amount  and  cheapness  of  available  land  was  a  motive  in 
bringing  American  settlers  as  well  as  the  English  to  Illinois ;  but 
there  was  another  motive,  more  idealistic,  which  influenced  the 
English  much  more  than  the  Americans — the  desire  to  locate  on 
nrairie  land.  George  Flower  was  especially  attracted  by  the 
'ries.  When  traveling  in  the  west  in  1816  he  sought  dili- 
•jt  ly  for  information  about  them.  "I  had  read  of  them  in 
Im  y's  work,"119  he  says,  "and  his  vivid  description  had  struck 
me  ,'orcibly.  All  the  country  that  I  had  passed  through  was 
heavily  timbered.  I  shrank  from  the  idea  of  settling  in  the 
midst  of  a  wood  of  heavy  timber,  to  hack  and  hew  my  way  to  a 

little  farm,  ever  bounded  by  a  wall  of  gloomy  forest 

It  was  at  Governor  Shelby's  house  [in  Kentucky]  that  I  met  the 
first  person  who  confirmed  me  in  the  existence  of  the  prairies. 
It  was  Mr.  Shelby's  brother.  He  had  just  come  from  some  point 
on  the  Mississippi,  across  the  prairies  of  Illinois  to  the  Ohio 
River,  about  Shawneetown. 

"This  was  enough;  I  felt  assured  of  where  they  were,  and 
that,  when  sought  for,  they  could  be  found.  It  was  then  too 
late  in  the  season  for  me  to  go  to  explore  them."120  The  follow- 
ing spring  when  Flower  met  Birkbeck,  he  led  the  party  without 
hesitation  or  deviation,  toward  the  prairies  of  his  vision.  Ro- 
mantic as  it  may  appear,  this  longing  of  Flower's  for  the  open 
prairies  which  he  had  never  seen  was  to  have  a  very  practical 


"'Birkbeck,  Letters  from  Illinois,  18-19. 

"The  first  edition  of  Imlay's  Topog 
•itory  of  North  America,  was  publisl 

"Flower,  English  Settlement,  36,  38. 


"'The  first  edition  of  Imlay's  Topographical  Description  of  the  Western 
Territory  of  North  America,  was  published  in  London  in  1792. 


106  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

effect  on  the  development  of  Illinois.  The  American  settlers 
had  shunned  the  prairie  partly  because  of  their  belief  that  the 
best  land  was  to  be  found  where  the  tallest  timber  grew  and 
partly  because  of  a  number  of  real  obstacles  such  as  the  lack 
of  water,  lack  of  wood  for  buildings,  fences,  fuel,  and  difficul- 
ties of  transportation.  These  men,  with  their  larger  means, 
were  able  to  overcome  some  of  these  difficulties  and  to  demon- 
strate the  value  of  prairie  land  for  farming. 

Knowing  how  his  imagination  had  been  stirred,  one  can  share 
with  Flower  the  adventure  of  his  first  sight  of  the  prairies  in 
reality.  Having  established  the  rest  of  the  party  temporarily 
at  Princeton  in  Indiana,  Birkbeck,  Flower,  and  one  of  the  for- 
mer's sons,  "mounted  again,  determined  to  find  these  ever- 
receding  prairies."  Crossing  the  Wabash  near  New  Harmony, 

they  came  first  to  "the  settlement  of  the  Big-Prairie 

It  was  being  settled  exclusively  by  small  corn- farmers  from  the 
slave-states.  This  prairie,  not  more  than  six  miles  long  and  two 
broad,  was  level,  rather  pondy,  and  aguish.  Its  verdure  and 
open  space  was  grateful  to  the  eye,  but  it  did  not  fulfil  our  ex- 
pectations." Inquiring  "the  way  to  the  Boltenhouse  Prairie,  so- 
called  from  the  name  of  a  man  who  had  built  a  small  cabin  on 
its  edge,  near  the  spot  where  his  brother  had  been  killed  by  the 
Indians  the  year  before,"  they  were  directed  to  follow  a  light 
trail  through  the  woods,  which  they  did  "for  seven  mortal  hours 
.  .  .  .  in  doubt  and  difficulty. 

"Bruised  by  the  brushwood  and  exhausted  by  the  extreme  heat 
we  almost  despaired,  when  a  small  cabin  and  a  low  fence  greeted 
our  eyes.  A  few  steps  more,  and  a  beautiful  prairie  suddenly 
opened  to  our  view.  At  first,  we  only  received  the  impressions 
of  its  general  beauty.  With  longer  gaze,  all  its  distinctive 
features  were  revealed,  lying  in  profound  repose  under  the  warm 
light  of  an  afternoon's  summer  sun.  Its  indented  and  irregular 
outline  of  wood,  its  varied  surface  interspersed  with  clumps  of 
oaks  of  centuries'  growth,  its  tall  grass,  with  seed  stalks  from 
six  to  ten  feet  high,  like  tall  and  slender  reeds  waving  in  a  gentle 
breeze,  the  whole  presenting  a  magnificence  of  park-scenery, 
complete  from  the  hand  of  Nature,  and  unrivalled  by  the  same 


THE  PIONEERS  107 

sort  of  scenery  by  European  art.  For  once,  the  reality  came 
up  to  the  picture  of  imagination.  Our  station  was  in  the  wood, 
on  rising  ground;  from  it,  a  descent  of  about  a  hundred  yards 
to  the  valley  of  the  prairie,  about  a-quarter  of  a  mile  wide,  ex- 
tending to  the  base  of  the  majestic  slope,  rising  upward  for  a  full 
half-mile,  crowned  by  groves  of  noble  oaks.  A  little  to  the  left, 
the  eye  wandered  up  a  long  stretch  of  prairie  for  three  miles, 
into  which  projected  hills  and  slopes,  covered  with  rich  grass 
and  decorated  with  compact  clumps  of  full-grown  trees,  from 
four  to  eight  in  each  clump.  From  beneath  the  broken  shade  of 
the  wood,  with  our  arms  raised  above  our  brows,  we  gazed  long 
and  steadily,  drinking  in  the  beauties  of  the  scene  which  had  been 
so  long  the  object  of  our  search." 

After  spending  several  days  exploring  the  prairies,  they  started 
on  the  return  journey  to  Princeton.  "Before  leaving  Illinois, 
night  overtook  us,"  continues  Flower,  "We  halted  by  the  side 
of  a  fallen  log,  at  a  point  of  timber  that  stretched  into  the  prairie. 
A  fire  being  kindled,  we  sat  down  on  the  grass,  talked  over  and 
decided  what  was  to  be  done.  ...  .  The  result  of  our  de- 
cision was  this: — After  clubbing  together  all  the  money  we 
could  then  command,  Mr.  Birkbeck  was  to  go  to  Shawneetown 
and  enter  all  the  woodland  around  the  Boltenhouse  Prairie.  We 
had  not  money  enough  with  us  to  purchase  the  whole  prairie.  I 
was  to  return  to  England  to  remit  him  money  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible, take  with  me  and  publish  the  manuscript  of  his  book  con- 
taining the  record  of  our  journey  from  Richmond  to  the  prairies; 
bring  out  my  father's  family ;  and  spread  the  information ;  point 
out  the  road  to  it;  and  facilitate  emigration  generally.  He  was 
on  the  home  department  to  purchase  more  land  and  make  the 
necessary  preparations  in  building.  I  on  the  foreign  mission,  to 
bring  in  the  people.  As  will  be  seen  hereafter,  he  did  his  duty 
and  I  did  mine."121 

The  first  purchase  of  land  for  the  settlement  was  made  at 
Shawneetown  before  Flower  left  for  England;  the  tract  bought 
consisted  of  about  three  thousand  acres.  During  1817  and  1818 
Birkbeck  entered  forty-one  and  a  quarter  sections  or  26,400 

mFlower,  English  Settlement,  60-74. 


108  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

acres  in  all;  and  Flower,  after  his  return,  also  made  addi- 
tional purchases.  Not  having  sufficient  funds  available  at  first 
to  enter  all  the  land  desired  for  the  settlement,  and  fearing  exten- 
sive purchases  by  speculators,  which  would  defeat  the  purposes  of 
the  project,  Birkbeck  determined  to  apply  to  congress  for  a 
"grant  by  purchase"  of  a  large  tract  of  land  in  the  unsurveyed 
district  beyond  the  base  line,  which  ran  only  six  miles  north  of 
the  first  purchases.  His  memorial,  dated  November  20,  1817,  set 
forth,  "that  a  number  of  his  Countrymen,  chiefly  Yeomen, 
Farmers,  Farming  labourers,  and  rural  Mechanics  are  desirous 
of  removing  with  their  families  And  Capital  into  this  Country, 
provided  that,  by  having  situations  prepared  for  them,  they  might 
escape  the  wearisome  &  expensive  travel  in  quest  of  a  settlement 
which  has  broken  the  Spirits  &  drained  the  purses  of  many  of 
their  emigrant  brethren,  terminating  too  frequently  in  disappoint- 
ment." No  reference  was  made  in  the  memorial  to  amount  of 
land  or  terms  of  purchase,  but  it  appears  from  correspondence 
between  Birkbeck  and  Nathaniel  Pope,  the  territorial  delegate, 
that  what  was  desired  was  the  privilege  of  purchasing  so  much  as 
might  be  needed  for  the  purpose  "not  exceeding  twenty,  thirty, 
or  forty  thousand  acres,"  at  the  minimum  price  and  with  "such 
an  extension  of  time  of  payment  as  might  preclude  embarrass- 
ment or  disappointment."  The  proposition  failed  to  meet  with 
the  approval  of  congress,  however,  for  it  was  felt  that  such 
grants  would  be  "liable  to  be  abused  by  speculators,"  and  that  it 
was  not  desirable  "to  encourage  the  settlement  of  foreigners  in 
distinct  masses."  The  leaders  were  obliged  to  content  them- 
selves, therefore,  with  making  plans  for  the  reception  of  their 
countrymen  "on  a  contracted  scale."122 

In  the  spring  of  1818  Birkbeck  moved  his  family  from  Prince- 
ton to  the  new  home  on  the  prairie.  His  Notes  on  a  Journey  had 
been  published  in  Philadelphia  as  well  as  in  London,  and  coming 
to  the  hands  of  a  number  of  English  people  already  in  this 
country,  induced  them  to  join  him.  By  June  the  colony  con- 
tained, according  to  Fordham,  "between  40  and  50  persons,  be- 

ia*The  chief  authorities  for  the  English  settlement  of  Edwards  county  are 
Flower,  English  Settlement,  Ogg,  Fordham's  Personal  Narrative,  Birkbeck, 
Letters  from  Illinois,  and  land  office  records,  auditor's  office,  Springfield.  The 
memorial  is  in  Birkbeck,  Letters  from  Illinois,  147-149. 


MRS.  GEORGE  FLOWER 

[From  original  painting  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 


THE  PIONEERS  109 

sides  American  settlers  in  the  neighbourhood;"  and  Birkbeck 
was  having  difficulty  in  getting  cabins  erected  by  the  backwoods- 
men rapidly  enough  to  supply  the  demand. 

Flower  started  his  first  party  from  England  in  March,  1818. 
It  consisted  of  "forty- four  men  and  one  married  woman.  .  . 
The  men  were  chiefly  farm-laborers  and  mechanics  from  Surrey. 
Many  of  them  had  for  years  worked  for  Mr.  Birkbeck,  others 
were  from  his  neighborhood,  and  were  either  personally  ac- 
quainted or  knew  him  by  reputation.  This  party  was  under  the 
especial  care  and  leadership  of  Mr.  Trimmer.  Another  party,  of 
about  equal  number,  composed  of  London  mechanics,  and 
tradesmen  from  various  parts  of  England  formed  another  party 
that  sailed  in  the  same  ship.  These  were  under  the  guidance  and 
direction  of  Mr.  James  Lawrence,  merchant  tailor,  of  Hatton 
Garden,  London.  Neither  Mr.  Lawrence  nor  any  one  of  his  party 
had  any  personal  acquaintance  with  either  Mr.  Birkbeck  or  my- 
self, but  received  their  impulse  from  our  published  expositions." 
According  to  Flower's  account  these  parties  arrived  at  Shaw- 
neetown  in  August,  but  it  must  have  been  late  in  July  for  the 
names  of  both  Trimmer  and  Lawrence  appear  in  the  schedule 
for  the  additional  census  of  Gallatin  county,  which  was  closed 
July  28.  Trimmer  appears  in  the  schedule  as  the  head  of  a  fam- 
ily of  fifty,  thirty  of  whom  were  entered  as  men  over  twenty-one. 
Only  eight  men  are  credited  to  Lawrence,  which  may  indicate  that 
some  of  the  mechanics  and  tradesmen  had  remained  in  the  east, 
although  some  of  them  may  have  been  entered  under  their  own 
names. 

These  first  parties,  says  Flower,  included  only  three  women, 
but  his  own  party  of  "three  score  and  more"  which  sailed  in 
April  in  a  chartered  ship,  contained  a  number  of  families.  All 
the  spare  room  on  the  deck  of  the  ship  was  occupied  by  Flower's 
"live-stock  of  cows,  hogs,  and  sheep,  of  the  choicest  breeds  of 
England."  This  was  doubtless  the  party  referred  to  in  the  fol- 
lowing item  from  a  New  York  paper :  "We  learn  that  a  gentle- 
man has  lately  arrived  in  this  city  from  England,  whose  object  is 
to  settle  in  the  Illinois  territory — that  his  family  and  settlers 
brought  over  with  him  amount  to  fifty-one  persons — that  he  has 
furnished  himself  with  agricultural  instruments,  seeds  of  various 


110  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

kinds,  some  cows,  sheep  and  hogs,  for  breeding,  and  about 
100,000  pounds  sterling  in  money."128 

In  October,  Fordham  wrote:  "We  have  now  200  English  on 
[sic]  our  Settlement.  Many  are  discontented;  but  the  strong- 
minded  regret  that  they  did  not'come  out  sooner."  In  August, 
when  the  first  shipload  arrived,  "the  village  of  Wanborough  was 
laid  off  by  Mr.  Birkbeck  in  five-acre  lots.  On  these  were  built 
cabins,  rented  by  some,  bought  by  others.  A  good  ox-mill  and 
blacksmith' s-shop  were  soon  after  added  to  the  village."  Flower 
gives  a  graphic  description  of  the  development  of  the  settlement 
and  of  the  founding  in  October,  of  a  village  which  grew  into  a 
town  :12* 

"Emigrants  were  continually  flowing  in.  They  first  visited 
Mr.  Birkbeck,  who  had  but  small  accommodations ;  then  came  to 
me,  who,  at  that  time,  had  still  less.  At  this  stage,  we  were  ex- 
periencing many  of  the  inconveniences  of  a  population  in  the 
wilderness,  in  advance  of  necessary  food  and  shelter.  Do  as  you 
will,  if  you  are  the  very  first  in  the  wilderness,  there  are  many 
inconveniences,  privations,  hardships,  and  sufferings  that  can  not 
be  avoided.  My  own  family,  one  day,  were  so  close  run  for  pro- 
visions, that  a  dish  of  the  tenderest  buds  and  shoots  of  the  hazle 
was  our  only  resort. 

"Mr.  Lawrence  and  Mr.  Trimmer,  who  led  the  first  shipload, 
made  their  settlement  in  the  Village  Prairie,  a  beautiful  and  ex- 
tensive prairie,  so-called  from  the  Piankeshaw  Indians,  there 
formerly  located.  It  was  situated  due  north  of  my  cabin  in  the 
Boltenhouse  Prairie,  about  three  miles,  the  intervening  space 
covered  by  timber  and  underbrush,  untouched  by  the  hand  of 
man.  Emigrants  kept  coming  in,  some  on  foot,  some  on  horse- 
back, and  some  in  wagons.  Some  sought  employment,  and  took 
up  with  such  labor  as  they  could  find.  Others  struck  out  and 
made  small  beginnings  for  themselves.  Some,  with  feelings  of 
petulence,  went  farther  and  fared  worse;  others  dropped  back 
into  the  towns  and  settlements  in  Indiana.  At  first,  I  had  as 
much  as  I  could  do  to  build  a  few  cabins  for  the  workmen  I  then 

'"Flower,  English  Settlement,  95-102 ;  Niks'  Weekly  Register,  14 :256. 

mOgg,  Fordham' s  Personal  Narrative,  236;  Flower,  English  Settlement, 
100,  124-126,  130. 


THE  PARK  HOUSE,  ALBION,  THE  FLOWER  HOME  BUILT  IN  1819-1822  AND  SAID 
IN  ITS  DAY  TO  BE  THE  FINEST  RESIDENCE  WEST  OF  THE  ALLEGHENIES 

[Original  painting  by  George  Flower.     Made  from  copy  in  possession  of  Walter  Colyer,  Albion] 


A  PIONEER  SCENE 

[From  Ellis,  Indian  Wars  of  the  United  Stales,, by  courtesy  of  Sears,  Roebuck  and  Company] 


THE  PIONEERS  111 

employed,  and  in  erecting  a  large  farmyard,  a  hundred  feet 
square,  enclosed  by  log-buildings,  two  stories  high ;  also  in  build- 
ing for  my  father's  family  a  house  of  considerable  size,  and  ap- 
pointed with  somewhat  more  of  comforts  than  is  generally 
found  in  new  settlements,  to  be  ready  for  their  reception  on  the 
following  summer.  I  had  as  yet  done  nothing  in  erecting  build- 
ings for  the  public  in  general,  as  there  had  been  no  time.  One 
evening  Mr.  Lawrence,  Mr.  Ronalds,  and  I  think,  Mr.  Fordham, 
called  at  my  cabin,  and,  after  their  horses  were  cared  for  and 
supper  over,  we  discussed  the  measures  that  should  be  taken  to 
form  some  village  or  town,  as  a  centre  for  those  useful  arts  nec- 
essary to  agriculture.  Every  person  wanted  the  services  of  a  car- 
penter and  blacksmith.  But  every  farmer  could  not  build  work- 
shops at  his  own  door.  Daylight  ceased,  darkness  followed.  We 
had  no  candles,  nor  any  means  of  making  artificial  light.  On  a 
pallet,  mattress,  or  blanket,  each  one  took  to  his  couch,  and  car- 
ried on  the  discussion.  After  much  talk,  we  decided  that  what  we 
did  do  should  be  done  in  order,  and  with  a  view  to  the  future 
settlement,  as  well  as  our  own  present  convenience.  The  tract  of 
forest  lying  between  Mr.  Lawrence's  settlement  in  the  Village 
Prairie,  on  its  southern  border,  and  mine  at  the  north  of  the 
Boltenhouse  Prairie,  was  about  three-and-a-half  miles  through. 
Somewhere  in  the  centre  of  this  tract  of  woodland  seemed  to 
be  the  place.  To  the  right  of  this  spot,  eastward,  lay,  about  a 
mile  distant,  several  prairies  running  north  and  south  for  many 
miles,  and  others  east  and  west  to  the  Bonpas  Creek,  from  three 
to  five  miles  distant.  North-eastward  from  Mr.  Lawrence's 
cabin,  prairies  of  every  form  and  size  continued  on  indefinitely. 
About  two  miles  west,  and  beyond  Wanborough,  were  numerous 
small  and  fertile  prairies,  extending  to  the  Little  Wabash,  from 
six  to  ten  miles  distant.  On  the  south  was  my  own  beautiful 
prairie.  Thus  the  spot  for  our  town  in  a  central  situation  was  de- 
cided upon.  Now  for  a  name.  We  were  long  at  fault.  At  last 
we  did  what  almost  all  emigrants  do,  pitched  on  a  name  that  had 
its  association  with  the  land  of  our  birth.  Albion  was  then  and 
there  located,  built,  and  peopled  in  imagination.  We  dropped 
off,  one  by  one,  to  sleep,  to  confirm  in  dreams  the  wanderings 
of  our  waking  fancies." 


112  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

The  English  settlement  in  1818  was  too  young  and  too  much 
occupied  with  its  own  problems  to  exert  any  considerable  in- 
fluence upon  the  affairs  of  the  territory  and  state,  but  its  influ- 
ence was  destined  to  be  very  considerable  in  later  years.  The 
leaders  were  men  of  superior  intelligence  and  education  and  took 
an  active  share  in  public  life.  Especially  in  the  struggle  over  the 
admission  of  slavery  in  1823  and  1824  their  influence  was  to  be 
felt  on  the  side  of  freedom.  The  settlement  was  destined  to  pro- 
mote also  the  agricultural  development  of  the  state.  The  lead- 
ers were  well  instructed  in  the  theory  and  practice  of  agriculture, 
and  the  farmers  whom  they  brought  over  were  "accustomed  to 
continuous  labor."  Their  capital  enabled  them  to  carry  on  opera- 
tions on  a  scale  hitherto  unknown  upon  the  frontier,  and  the 
blooded  stock  which  they  introduced  was  a  valuable  asset  to  the 
community.  The  English  settlement,  moreover,  was  to  give  to 
Illinois  unlimited  advertising,  not  only  in  England,  but  on  the 
continent  and  in  the  United  States  as  well. 

Eleven  editions  in  English  of  Birkbeck's  Notes  on  a  Journey 
were  issued  during  1817,  1818,  and  1819  in  Philadelphia,  Lon- 
don, Dublin,  and  Cork,  while  a  German  translation  was  pub- 
lished at  Jena  in  1818.  His  Letters  from  Illinois  were  published 
in  seven  editions  in  English  in  1818,  and  the  following  year 
were  translated  into  both  French  and  German.  Birkbeck  wrote 
a  number  of  other  pamphlets  containing  advice  to  emigrants,  and 
several  of  the  other  members  of  the  settlement  published  ac- 
counts of  their  experiences.  Nearly  all  the  foreign  travelers  who 
made  tours  of  the  United  States  during  the  years  1818  to  1820 
visited  the  settlement  and  published  accounts  of  it  in  their  books. 
Some  of  these  were  unfavorable,  and  an  extensive  literary  contro- 
versy followed  in  which  the  leading  English  and  American  re- 
views participated.125  All  this  served  to  call  attention  not  only  to 
the  settlement  itself  but  to  Illinois  and  the  west  as  a  whole,  and 
undoubtedly  helped  to  promote  emigration  both  from  abroad 
and  from  the  eastern  states. 

^See  Buck,  Travel  and  Description,  58-91,  passim,  for  bibliographical 
notes  on  these  publications. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   ECONOMIC    SITUATION 

The  industrial  development  of  a  region  on  the  frontier  has 
always  depended  to  a  very  large  extent  on  its  facilities  for  trans- 
portation. In  recent  times  the  settlement  of  the  western  plains 
has  followed  the  lines  of  the  pioneer  railroads,  usually  resisting 
every  attempt  to  deflect  it  to  regions  not  traversed  by  them. 
When  the  Mississippi  valley  was  first  settled,  however,  the  rail- 
roads had  not  yet  begun  to  play  their  part  as  a  major  economic 
factor;  and  accordingly  it  was  the  waterways,  as  offering  an 
obvious  and  easy  means  of  communication,  which  exerted  the 
most  decisive  influence  upon  the  early  settlement  and  develop- 
ment of  the  middle  west. 

Illinois  in  particular  owed  much  to  her  abundance  of  navigable 
streams.  With  an  easy  means  of  communication  between  the 
great  lakes  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  by  way  of  the  Illinois  river 
and  its  tributaries,  and  in  touch  with  the  east  by  way  of  the 
Ohio,  the  Illinois  country  occupied  a  strategic  position  in  rela- 
tion to  the  outside  world.  In  the  interior,  the  Illinois,  the 
Wabash,  and  the  Kaskaskia,  with  their  numerous  tributaries, 
afforded  unusually  good  transportation  facilities ;  even  such  lesser 
streams  as  the  Little  Wabash,  the  Embarrass,  the  Big  Muddy, 
and  some  of  the  so-called  creeks  could  be  navigated  by  the 
barges,  flatboats,  arks,  and  keel  boats  in  use  on  the  western 
waters.  As  has  already  been  indicated,  the  first  settlers  naturally 
located  along  these  waterways;  had  it  not  been  for  the  consid- 
erable number  of  streams,  the  country  could  never  have  been 
developed  as  rapidly  as  it  was. 

The  era  of  the  steamboat,  destined  to  bring  about  a  great  in- 
crease in  the  speed  and  reduction  in  the  cost  of  transportation, 

(113) 


114  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

was  just  beginning  at  the  time  when  Illinois  became  a  state.  The 
first  steamboat  trip  down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  was  in  1811, 
but  not  until  four  years  later  was  the  first  trip  up  the  river  to 
Louisville  accomplished,  while  August  2,  1817,  was  the  date  of 
the  first  arrival  at  St.  Louis.  The  following  January,  however, 
Morris  Birkbeck  reported:  "Steam-boats  already  navigate  the 
Wabash:  a  vessel  of  that  description  has  this  winter  made  its 
way  up  from  New  Orleans  to  within  a  few  miles  of  our  settle- 
ment. They  are  about  building  one  at  Harmony."  Two  months 
later  he  wrote  to  a  prospective  emigrant :  "Your  voyage  up  from 
New  Orleans,  by  steam,  will  be  about  a  month.  Steam-boats  are 
passing  continually.  A  gentleman  who  is  just  come  down  the 
Ohio,  saw  ten  new  ones  on  the  stocks  at  different  ports  of  the 
river."128 

Important  as  was  river  transportation,  especially  as  icgards 
connection  with  the  outside  world,  the  improvement  of  facilities 
for  travel  and  transportation  on  land  was  also  necessary  for  the 
development  of  the  territory  and  state.  Often  the  distance  from 
point  to  point  by  water  was  several  times  as  great  as  that  by 
land,  while  much  of  the  most  desirable  land  lay  in  the  interior  be- 
tween the  streams.  From  early  territorial  times  travelers  and 
emigrants  had  made  their  way  overland  from  various  points  on 
the  Ohio  to  the  settlements  on  the  Mississippi,  and  by  1818  a 
number  of  main  lines  of  travel  were  clearly  marked  out.  The 
earlier  route  from  Fort  Massac,  a  short  distance  below  the  mouth 
of  the  Tennessee,  to  Kaskaskia  had  been  largely  superseded  by 
the  roads  leading  from  Golconda  and  Shawneetown  to  the  cap- 
ital. From  Kaskaskia  northward  an  old  road  wound  up  the 
American  bottom  through  Prairie  du  Rocher  and  Cahokia  to 
Illinoistown  opposite  St.  Louis  and  to  the  mouth  of  Wood  river. 
The  rapid  growth  of  the  country  north  of  Kaskaskia,  in  St.  Clair 
and  Madison  counties,  led  to  the  development  of  a  direct  route 
of  travel  from  Shawneetown  through  Carlyle  to  Edwardsville 
and  Alton,  to  which  was  given  the  name  "Goshen  Road."  From 
Vincennes  to  St.  Louis  ran  another  trail  which  joined  the  Goshen 

""Birkbeck,  Letters  from  Illinois,  55,  113;  Preble,  History  of  Steam  Navi- 
gation, 66-72. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  115 

road  near  Carlyle  and  coincided  with  it  for  a  few  miles;  and  a 
branch  of  this  Vincennes  road,  leaving  the  main  line  near  the 
center  of  the  state,  led  southwestwardly  to  Kaskaskia.  Other  im- 
portant lines  of  travel  were  from  Shawneetown  northward 
through  Carmi  to  the  English  settlement  and  from  Kaskaskia  by 
way  of  Belleville  to  Edwardsville. 

Although  there  was  considerable  travel  on  these  main  routes 
during  certain  seasons  of  the  year,  they  were  in  the  main  little 
more  than  trails  worn  by  use.  They  were  made,  as  George 
Flower  expresses  it  "by  one  man  on  horseback  following  in  the 
track  of  another,  every  rider  making  the  way  a  little  easier  to 
find,  until  you  came  to  some  slush,  or  swampy  place,  where  all 
trace  was  lost,  and  you  got  through  as  others  had  done,  by 
guessing  at  the  direction,  often  riding  at  hazard  for  miles  until 
you  stumbled  on  the  track  again."  To  guide  the  traveler  through 
the  wilderness,  "the  tracks  or  roads  from  one  settlement  to  an- 
other in  the  woods,  are  marked  by  one  notch  in  the  bark  of  the 
trees  for  a  foot-path,  two  for  a  bridle-road,  and  three  for  a  wag- 
gon route."127 

The  need  of  improvement  was  obvious,  but  efforts  directed 
toward  making  better  roads  had  many  practical  difficulties  to 
overcome.  At  the  very  first  session  of  the  territorial  legislature 
in  December,  1812,  congress  was  appealed  to  for  an  appropria- 
tion "to  open  a  road  from  Shawneetown  on  the  Ohio  river  to 
the  Saline  and  '  from  thence,  the  most  direct  way,  to  Kas- 
kaskia."128 Two  years  later  an  attempt  was  made  in  the  lower 
house  of  the  legislature  to  provide  for  the  laying  out  of  a  number 
of  main  highways  at  the  expense  of  the  territory.  Although  the 
bill  for  this  purpose  was  "postponed  untill  next  Session  of  the 
Legislature"  it  is  significant  for  the  information  which  it  contains 
as  to  prevailing  conditions  and  as  to  the  roads  desired.129  It 
reads : 

"Whereas  it  is  essential  to  the  prosperity  of  this  Territory  that 

^Flower,  English  Settlement,  120;  Harris,  Remarks  made  during  a  Tour, 
139;  see  also  Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels,  10:260. 

""James,  Territorial  Records,  119. 

^Original  in  "Miscellaneous  Assembly  Papers"  in  secretary  of  state's 
office. 


116 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Roads  should  be  laid  out  &  established  thro'  the  same  in  such  di- 
rections as  will  tend  most  effectually  to  facilitate  &  render  more 
safe  the  intercourse  between  the  two  populous  extremes  of  the 


same. 


"And  whereas  a  Road  from  the  Ohio  Saline  to  Kaskaskia  the 
nearest  &  best  rout  and  one  from  this  to  begin  at  a  point  on  the 


GRAIN  CRADLE 

[Original  owned  by  W.  O.  Converse,  Springfield] 

West  side  of  Little  Muddy  &  to  run  the  nearest  and  best  rout  to 
the  Court-House  of  S'Clair  County  at  Bellville  &  also  one  from 
Lusk's  Ferry130  on  the  Ohio  to  intersect  the  Road  leading  from 
the  Saline  to  Kaskaskia  at  a  point  to  be  ascertain'd  &  fix'd  upon 
by  the  Viewers  would  be  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  Coun- 
try &  greatly  advantageous  to  the  People  of  the  Territory  & 
those  moving  to  &  through  the  same. 

"The  many  advantages  resulting  from  this  measure  are  obvious 
— Instead  of  a  Wilderness  of  nearly  one  hundred  Miles  thro' 
which  the  present  intercourse  is  carried — of  the  bad  roads  which 
in  the  wet  season  of  the  year  are  rendered  impassable — Rafting  or 
or  [sic]  swimming  the  several  turbulent  streams  which  often  ex- 
tend some  miles  beyond  their  Beds — of  being  obliged  to  encamp 

""Golconda. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  117 

for  Weeks  in  woods,  wanting  often  the  necessary  Sustenance  for 
Man  &  Horse — these  several  established  routs  would  ere  long  be 
found  crouded  with  Farms  on  each  side — Ferrys  &  Toll  Bridges 
established — provisions  for  Travellers  in  abundance — >&  all  the 
difficulties  &  obstacles  greatly  lessened  or  entirely  removed  and 
would  render  the  conveyance  of  the  mails — the  marching  of 
Troops  from  one  populous  extreme  of  the  Terry  to  the  other — 
the  conveyance  of  Salt  more  safe  easy  &  less  expensive — To  the 
end  therefore  that  the  best  ground  may  be  selected  on  or  as  near 
these  several  Routs  as  the  ground  will  admit  of  &  to  the  end 
also  that  these  may  be  permanently  established  &  opened  either 
as  Turnpikes  or  otherwise  by  the  proper  authority  Be  it  Enacted 
that  Philip  Trammil  Enock  Moore  &  Thomas  Jordan  be  and 
are  hereby  appointed  viewers  with  Power  &  authority  to  pro- 
ceed to  view  &  select  the  ground  most  suitable,  &  cause  a  survey 
to  be  made  of  the  same  &  to  note  the  obstacles  that  may  present 
themselves  on  the  several  Routs  which,  together  with  their 
opinion  of  the  probable  sum  necessary  for  opening  the  said 
Roads,  the  said  viewers  shall  report  to  the  Legislature  at  the 
Commencement  of  their  next  Session." 

Nothing  further  is  heard  of  this  territorial  project,  but  in 
April,  1816,  congress  passed  "An  Act  to  authorize  the  survey- 
ing and  making  a  road  in  the  territory  of  Illinois,"  which  led 
ultimately  to  a  material  improvement  of  the  facilities  for  travel 
between  Shawneetown  and  Kaskaskia.  Commissioners  were  to 
be  appointed  by  the  president  to  "explore,  survey,  and  mark  in 
the  most  eligible  course,  a  road"  between  these  two  places,  and 
eight  thousand  dollars  was  appropriated  for  the  expense  of  open- 
ing and  marking  the  road  in  such  manner  as  the  president  might 
direct.  On  February  5,  1817,  the  Intelligencer  reported  that  the 
commissioners  had  completed  their  survey  of  the  road.  "They 
have  taken  it  from  where  it  at  present  runs  for  the  longest  part 
of  the  distance,  by  doing  which  they  have  formed  as  they  state 
themselves  an  infinitely  better  road  and  have  shortened  the  dis- 
tance about  eighteen  miles.  At  the  crossing  of  all  those  streams 
between  the  Saline  and  Kaskaskia  in  the  neighborhood  of  which, 
so  many  difficulties  were  presented  in  consequence  of  the  marches 


118  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

and  quagmires,  the  present  rout  will  be  entirely  exempt  from 

them It  is  expected  that  the  road  will  be  opened  in 

the  spring — and  so  soon  as  there  are  houses  of  entertainment 
established  on  it,  it  will  no  doubt  be  traveled  by  every  person." 

The  expectation  that  the  new  road  would  soon  be  opened 
was  not  fulfilled.  The  summer  and  autumn  of  1817  passed 
without  further  developments  and  November  6  the  Intelligencer 
declared:  "It  is  to  be  regretted  very  much  that  the  road  has 
not  been  opened,  or  the  old  one  improved, — families  coming  to 
the  country  have  been  detained  a  week  by  high  water  and  muddy 
roads,  which  is  extremely  discouraging  to  emigrants.  Had  not 
the  $8,000  better  be  laid  out  in  erecting  bridges  and  improving 
the  old  road?  That  sum  properly  expended  on  the  old  road 
would  make  it  one  of  the  best  roads  in  the  western  country. 
Unless  the  new  road  is  completed  or  the  other  improved,  it  will 
almost  be  impossible  for  waggons  [sic]  to  travel  it,  as  it  is  becom- 
ing worse  and  worse  every  day,  and  especially  at  this  season  of 
the  year." 

Finally  in  the  following  April,  two  years  after  the  passage 
of  the  act,  announcement  was  made  that  the  survey  had  received 
the  approval  of  the  president,  and  in  August  proposals  were 
invited  "for  Cutting  and  Clearing  out  the  road  as  laid  out  by 
the  commissioners,  from  Kaskaskia  to  Demint's181  a  distance 
of  about  50  miles.  The  road  to  be  cut  33  feet  wide  and  all  the 
timber  taken  off,  the  stumps  to  be  very  low."  The  progress  of 
the  work  during  the  fall  and  winter  is  described  by  Governor 
Bond  in  a  communication  to  the  legislature  delivered  March  4, 
1819.  "It  has  been  ascertained,"  he  wrote,  "that  the  appropria- 
tions made  by  congress  for  laying  off  and  completing  a  road 
from  Shawneetown  to  Kaskaskia,  will  not  be  sufficient  for  the 
completion  of  that  object. 

"The  road  has  been  cut  out,  and  the  timber  removed  from  a 
part  thereof.  And  it  is  believed  that  with  the  money  yet  remain- 
ing, the  road  can  be  made  passible,  with  this  exception;  the 
principal  creeks  and  rivers  between  Kaskaskia  and  Muddy  river, 
cannot  be  bridged  without  an  additional  appropriation. 

This  was  where  the  road  crossed  the  Big  Muddy  in  the  southwestern 
part  of  what  is  now  Franklin  county.  Intelligencer,  August  5,  1818. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  119 

"From  the  information  I  have  received,  it  is  not  probable 
that  a  further  grant  of  money  will  be  made  by  Congress  for  the 
purpose. 

"I  therefore,  recommend  the  propriety  of  passing  a  law  author- 
ising the  building  of  toll  bridges  over  such  creeks  and  rivers  by 
individuals."  The  legislature  decided  that  no  legislation  was 
necessary  as  the  county  commissioners  already  had  authority  to 
grant  such  privileges. 

Particular  interest  attaches  to  the  road  from  Vincennes 
to  St.  Louis  because  for  a  considerable  distance  it  lay  beyond 
the  frontier  of  survey  and  itself  marked  the  frontier  line  of 
extreme  settlement.  This  was  just  becoming  an  established 
route  of  travel  in  1818.  Three  years  earlier  Edward  Coles  had 
been  "assured  at  Vincennes  that  there  were  no  houses  of  accom- 
modation on  the  way,  and  moreover,  that  it  was  not  safe  from 
Indian  massacre,  to  go  from  there  directly  west  to  St.  Louis* 
but  that  I  would  have  to  go  by  way  of  Shawneetown  and  Kas- 
kaskia."132  By  1817,  however,  there  was  a  "trace"  across  the 
prairies  but  "to  ride  that  alone  was  then  thought  to  be  a 
perilous  affair."133  Two  years  later  it  was  still  considered  "a 
perilous  affair"  to  travel  the  route  alone  but  the  danger  appears 
to  have  been  less  from  Indians  than  from  white  men.  There 
were  at  that  time  some  six  or  more  road  houses  along  the  way 
between  the  Embarras  river  on  the  east  and  the  Kaskaskia  on 
the  west,  the  limits  of  settlement ;  but  the  hospitality  of  some  of 
these  appears  to  have  been  of  a  very  dubious  character.  An 
eastern  tenderfoot,  who  made  the  trip  in  1819  gives  an  account 
of  his  experiences,  which  were  so  startling  that  it  would  be 
difficult  to  regard  his  story  as  anything  but  pure  fiction,  were 
it  not  for  corroborative  evidence.134 

This  traveler,  Richard  Lee  Mason  by  name,  "obtained  a  list 
of  cutthroats  and  murderers,  whose  names  are  as  follows  on 
the  list:  Gatewood,  Rutherford,  Grimberry,  Cain,  Young,  Por- 
tlethwaite,  etc.  This  chain  of  villains  extended  for  eighty  miles 

""Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Journal,  3:110.  3,  p.  62. 
"'Flower,  English  Settlement,  53. 

1MMason,  Narrative,  40-50;  History  of  Wayne  and  Clay  Counties,  428; 
Dana,  Geographical  Sketches,  310. 


120  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

through  all  the  dreary  and  lonesome  prairies.  We  were  informed 
that  when  they  were  not  engaged  in  robbing  or  murdering  they 
were  very  industriously  employed  in  manufacturing  bank  notes, 
which  they  imposed  on  travelers  at  every  opportunity.  It  may 
be  worthy  of  remark  that  all  the  country  for  forty  miles  around 
where  these  banditti  have  taken  possession  belongs  to  the  United 
States.  For  the  convenience  of  travelers,  a  new  road  has  been 
made  through  this  country,  instead  of  going  by  Shawneetown, 
and  those  villains  have  posted  themselves  along  the  road  under 
the  name  of  tavernkeepers,  watching  for  their  prey  whenever  it 
may  pass.  Indeed,  I  conceive  it  impossible  for  any  man  who 
has  cash  enough  to  make  him  worth  killing  to  travel  this  road 
alone.  Called  to  see  Gatewood,  the  first  man  on  the  list  of  cut- 
throats. He  was  from  home.  Saw  his  wife,  a  handsome,  young 
dejected-looking  woman,  who  appeared  very  uneasy  at  her  hus- 
band's being  inquired  for  by  a  man  almost  as  well  armed  and 
not  much  out  of  the  style  of  Robinson  Crusoe.  Saw  a  bloody 
cravat  on  the  end  of  the  log  of  which  his  house  was  built.  We 
intend  to  call  and  see  the  balance  of  the  fraternity  out  of  curi- 
osity  Crossed  a  prairie  twelve  miles  broad  and  arrived 

at  the  house  of  Rutherford,  the  second  man  on  the  cutthroat 
list.  We  had  time  enough  to  pass  this  house,  but  having  a  list 
of  desperadoes,  and  being  disappointed  in  seeing  Gatewood, 
curiosity  induced  us  to  spend  the  night.  This  was  a  piece  of 
comedy  for  information  which  was  near  ending  in  tragedy. 
Our  traveling  party  consisted  of  four  persons,  Dr.  Hill,  myself 
and  two  young  men,  strangers,  from  Kentucky.  As  we  trav- 
eled in  a  little  carriage,  and  with  a  pair  of  horses,  we  placed 
our  fellow-travelers'  baggage  with  our  own,  which  made  a 
considerable  show.  On  our  arrival  a  man  dressed  like  a  Quaker 
pretended  to  be  hostler  until  he  ascertained  the  quantity  of  our 
baggage.  I  recognized  him  as  an  engraver  from  Philadelphia, 
who  had  been  a  candidate  for  the  penitentiary  for  forgery.  We 
called  for  the  landlord,  and  were  informed  by  Mrs.  Rutherford 
that  he  was  from  home,  but  we  could  be  well  entertained  and 

made  comfortable  in  every  way We  were  suddenly 

startled  by  the  shrill  Indian  warwhoop,  which  proceeded  from 
a  thicket  near  the  house We  were  not  kept  long  -in  a 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  121 

state  of  suspense.  Rutherford  and  three  sturdy  fellows,  armed, 
entered  the  house,  all  half -drunk.  They  took  no  notice  of  us, 
but  eyed  our  baggage,  which  was  heaped  on  the  floor.  They 
drank  freely  of  whisky,  and  appeared  in  fine  spirits.  As  one 
of  our  companions  was  passing  a  small  log  house,  in  which  food 
was  kept,  he  heard  men  whispering,  which  he  informed  me  of. 
I  immediately  got  a  candle.  Searched  the  house,  but  did  not  see 
any  person.  However,  as  I  was  returning,  I  found  two  tall  men 
hid  in  the  chimney,  who,  on  being  spoken  to,  went  into  the  house, 
making  six  altogether,  and  most  of  them  very  tall.  They  were 
armed  with  rifles  and  butcher  knives,  without  coats  or  hats,  their 
sleeves  rolled  up,  their  beards  long  and  their  faces  smutted,  such 
as  the  bravos  are  represented  in  the  play  of  'The  Foundling  of 
the  Forest.'  We  had  been  anxious  to  see  some  of  these  banditti, 
but  we  did  not  contemplate  seeing  so  large  a  company  or  having 
so  full  a  visit  from  the  fraternity.  Rutherford  disguised  himself 
and  denied  that  he  was  landlord,  or  that  he  lived  at  the  place.  It 
was  not  long  before  we  were  informed  of  the  business  of  those 
devil-like  looking  visitors.  Some  of  their  private  consultations 
were  overheard.  Robbery  and  murder  was  contemplated. 
They  would  frequently  whisper  and  pinch  each  other,  wink,  eye 
us,  then  hunch  each  other  and  give  a  number  of  private  signals 
which  we  did  not  understand.  One  observed  'the  trap  door  was 
too  open/  'that  the  boards  were  too  wide  apart/  in  a  loud  tone 

of  voice.     The  reply  was:  'By  G ,  it  should  be  screwed  up 

tight  enough  before  morning !'  They  often  mentioned  the  names 
of  the  cut-throats  we  had  on  our  list  as  their  particular  friends 
and  associates.  They  also  spoke  of  the  two  men  who  had  been 
murdered  the  day  before,  and  acknowledged  that  they  ate  their 
last  meal  in  the  house  we  were  in.  Laughed  at  the  manner  in 
which  the  throats  of  one  of  these  unfortunate  men  was  cut,  and 
many  other  circumstances  which  would  swell  this  memorandum 
too  much.  Convinced  us  beyond  a  doubt  they  were  of  the  ban- 
ditti that  had  been  described  to  us.  Our  own  safety  now 
became  a  matter  of  serious  consideration,  and  our  party  of  four 
held  a  consultation  after  the  robbers'  consultation  was  over 
(which  was  held  in  the  dark  a  little  way  from  the  house)  .... 


122  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

The  hour  of  9  o'clock  had  now  arrived,  the  night  uncommonly 
dark  and  cloudy.  On  our  going  into  the  house  one  of  the  stran- 
gers went  into  the  yard  and  gave  the  Indian  warwhoop  three 
times  very  loud.  About  10  o'clock  they  took  their  six  rifles,  went 
into  the  yard  with  a  candle  and  shot  them  off  one  by  one,  snuffing 
the  candle  at  forty  yards  every  shot.  They  then  loaded  afresh, 
primed  and  picked  their  flints.  A  large  horn  was  then  taken 
from  the  loft  and  blown  distinctly  three  times  very  loud.  All 
those  signals  (which  we  had  been  told  of)  brought  no  more  of 
the  company.  They  then  dispatched  two  of  their  own  party, 
who  were  gone  until  12  o'clock.  They  stated  to  their  comrades 
'they  could  not  be  had/  It  may  be  readily  imagined,  after  what 
we  had  overheard,  seeing  such  preparations  and  observing  many 
of  their  private  signals,  being  warned  of  our  danger  previous  to 
stopping  at  the  house,  together  with  the  recent  and  cruel  murders 
which  had  been  committed,  in  a  strange  country,  where  every 
man  made  and  executed  his  own  law  to  suit  himself — I  say  it 
cannot  be  a  matter  of  wonder  that  our  situation  began  to  put 
on  a  character  of  the  most  unpleasant  kind.  However,  we  were 
well  armed,  having  pistols,  dirks,  knives  and  a  gun,  and  were 
determined,  if  necessity  should  require,  to  be  murdered  in  the 
house,  and  not  to  be  dragged  into  the  woods,  there  to  have  our 
throats  cut.  It  being  a  little  after  12  o'clock  the  bravos  proposed 
to  take  a  drink  and  lie  down  on  the  floor  to  rest,  which  they  did, 
and  upon  their  arms.  The  house  being  very  small  they  almost 
covered  the  floor  of  one  room.  The  small  back  room  was 
intended  for  us.  There  was  no  door  to  the  partition,  and  the 
logs  were  about  six  inches  apart.  We  were  under  some  appre- 
hension that  in  case  of  an  attack  they  would  be  able  to  fire  on 
us  through  the  logs.  After  they  were  all  still,  myself  and  com- 
panions lay  down  in  reach  of  each  other,  our  clothes  on,  our 
dirks  unsheathed,  the  guards  off  our  pistols  and  three  extra 
bullets  in  our  gun,  and  agreed  if  a  signal  was  given  to  fight  the 

good  fight Knowing  those  fellows  were  expert  at  cutting 

throats,  from  their  conversation  on  that  subject,  I  determined  to 
put  them  to  as  much  trouble  as  possible.  Took  off  my  cravat 
and  twisted  my  silk  handkerchief  and  tied  it  round  my  neck.  In 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  123 

this  situation  we  spent  the  night.  We  lay  on  our  arms  ready 
for  the  word.  But  little  sleep.  When  they  would  move  we  did 
the  same.  If  they  coughed  we  followed  the  example.  In  this 
dreadful  way  the  night  was  spent.  I  have  no  hesitation  of 
declaring  that  if  we  had  not  been  well  armed  or  kept  a 
strict  watch  we  should  have  been  robbed  and  murdered,  and 
nothing  but  the  fear  of  our  killing  a  part  of  them  kept  their 
hands  off.  Could  they  have  added  to  their  numbers  by  their 
signals,  our  fate  would  have  been  certain.  It  is  probable  the 
balance  of  their  party  was  engaged  in  some  other  enterprise. 
About  the  break  of  day  the  signal  of  rising  was  given  by  our 
visitors.  We  were  on  our  feet  in  a  minute,  and  our  hands  upon 
our  arms.  Three  of  them  examined  their  rifles,  and,  after 
having  some  conversation  with  their  comrades,  proceeded  up  the 
road  we  had  to  travel.  I  presumed  to  place  themselves  behind 
trees  and  fire  upon  us  without  the  risk  of  being  killed.  We  lost 
no  time  in  placing  our  baggage  in  our  carriage  and  getting  ready 
to  leave  this  robbers'  den.  After  paying  our  bill  and  being  ready 
for  a  start,  one  of  the  brotherhood  begged  I  would  take  my  sad- 
dlebags into  the  house  again;  that  he  wanted  a  dose  of  medicine 
for  one  who  was  very  sick.  This  I  declined  doing,  suspecting 
his  object,  and  advised  him  to  call  on  some  person  with  whom  he 
was  better  acquainted.  We  then  bid  adieu  to  Mr.  Rutherford, 
his  family,  the  banditti  and  the  edge  of  the  twelve-mile  prairie. 
We  had  not  traveled  more  than  half  a  mile  when  we  fell  in  with 
four  travelers  going  to  St.  Louis,  which  increased  our  number 
to  eight  persons,  and  placed  us  out  of  danger.  In  making  a 
memorandum  of  this  unpleasant  transaction,  many  important  cir- 
cumstances and  some  facts  have  been  omitted.  To  have  given 
a  full  detail  would  have  taken  more  time  than  is  in  my  power  to 
devote  at  this  time." 

Besides  the  main  highways  crossing  the  state  there  were,  of 
course,  numerous  local  lines  of  travel  radiating  out  from  the 
towns  through  the  surrounding  country  or  connecting  the  settle- 
ments with  the  through  roads  or  with  navigable  streams.  "Most 
of  the  settlements"  it  was  reported  in  1817,  "are  connected  by 
practicable  roads,  at  least  for  packers  and  travellers  on  horse- 


124  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

back."185  Jurisdiction  over  these  local  roads  rested  with  the 
county  courts.  Whenever  anything  more  than  a  natural  trail 
was  desired,  viewers  were  appointed  to  select  a  route.  That 
having  been  accomplished,  overseers  or  supervisors  of  each  road 
were  appointed  to  see  that  it  was  opened  up  and  maintained.  A 
certain  amount  of  work  on  the  roads  or  the  payment  of  a  tax  in 
lieu  thereof  was  an  obligation  imposed  upon  all  the  adult  male 
inhabitants.  In  some  cases  the  overseers  were  given  "power  to 
call  out  all  the  hands  on  each  side  of  said  road  within  six  miles 
of  it,  to  cut  it  out  and  keep  it  in  repair;"  but  the  more  usual  proce- 
dure appears  to  have  been  for  the  county  court  to  compile  a 
"list  of  persons  subject  to  road  labor,"  in  which  each  individual 
would  be  assigned  to  a  specific  road. 

The  provision  of  means  for  crossing  the  many  streams  was 
the  most  difficult  problem  which  these  pioneer  road  makers  had 
to  face.  Whenever  possible  a  ford  was  used  but  there  were 
many  streams  which  could  not  be  forded.  The  problem  was 
usually  solved  by  granting  to  some  individual  the  right  to  estab- 
lish a  ferry  or  erect  a  toll  bridge.  Charges  for  the  use  of  these 
conveniences  were  fixed  by  the  county  court,  and  the  proprietor 
was  usually  protected  in  his  monopoly  of  the  business.  It  is 
doubtful  if  many  of  the  proprietors  had  as  much  confidence  in 
the  traveling  public  as  one  John  Flack  who,  in  December,  1818, 
advertised  his  "Boucoup  Bridge"  in  the  Intelligencer  as  follows : 
"I  have  opened  a  road  from  my  house,  4  miles  west  of  Boucoup, 
on  a  straight  line  to  the  old  crossing  of  Little  Muddy,  at  Jackson's 
bridge,  and  have  erected  an  excellent  bridge  across  Boucoup — 
this  is  the  direct  route  from  Kaskaskia  to  Shawneetown;  and 
the  way  opened  by  my  bridge  is  three  miles  nearer,  and  much 
better  than  the  old  road.  I  have  not  yet  established  a  toll  house 
at  the  bridge,  but  any  person  may  cross,  and  in  that  case,  I  will 
thank  them  to  call  at  my  house  and  make  me  some  compensa- 
tion */  they  please" 

Another  essential  accommodation  for  travelers  making  jour- 
neys of  any  considerable  length  was  the  road  house  or  tavern, 
and  establishments  of  this  sort  were  to  be  found  at  frequent 

"*Brown,  Western  Gazetteer,  28;  see  also  History  of  Gallatin,  Hamilton, 
Franklin,  and  Williamson  Counties,  53-58;  History  of  Madison  County,  82. 


WEAVING  LOOM 

[Original  owned  by  W.  O.  Converse,  Springfield] 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  125 

intervals  on  all  the  main  highways.  From  the  many  descriptions 
of  these  taverns  which  have  been  preserved  it  is  evident  that  the 
accommodations  were  usually  very  crude  even  in  the  best  of 
them.  A  tavern  establishment  in  Harrisonville,  for  example, 
which  was  offered  for  sale  in  1818,  was  described  as  consisting 
of  "the  house  containing  Four  commodious  Rooms,  a  Kitchen, 
Smoke-House,  Corncrib  and  a  Stable,  and  a  Garden  attached 
thereto,  at  present  under  cultivation."  A  good-natured  German 
who  was  in  Illinois  in  1819  reports  that  "after  a  journey  of  22 
miles  through  these  prairies  we  reached  the  tavern;  it  was  full 
of  travelers.  Nevertheless  each  one  was  served  well  enough,  the 
horses  were  well  cared  for,  and  only  with  respect  to  the  lodgings 
was  the  comfort  not  great.  Each  one  had  to  prepare  his  own 
bed  upon  the  floor  as  well  as  he  could,  and  even  here  the  Ameri- 
can shows  a  peculiar  ease  which  is  the  result  of  his  noble  freedom. 
Everything  is  done  without  ado  and  without  ceremony.  This 
manner  of  living,  which  was  to  me  at  first  very  strange  and  dis- 
agreeable, soon  received  my  entire  approval — little  by  little  one 
feels  himself  free  among  free,  honest  people."188  An  English 
traveler  recounts  his  experience  in  the  tavern  at  Albion  in  the 
same  year  as  follows :  "I  supped  and  went  to  bed  in  a  hog-stye 
of  a  room,  containing  four  filthy  beds  and  eight  mean  persons; 
the  sheets  stinking  and  dirty ;  scarcity  of  water  is,  I  suppose,  the 
cause.  The  beds  lie  on  boards,  not  cords,  and  are  so  hard  that 
I  could  not  sleep.  Three  in  one  bed,  all  filth,  no  comfort,  and 
yet  this  is  an  English  tavern;  no  whiskey,  no  milk,  and  vile  tea, 
in  this  land  of  prairies."137  It  is  apparent  that  both  of  these 
descriptions  are  colored  by  the  personality  and  point  of  view  of 
the  writers. 

Closely  connected  with  the  subject  of  transportation  was  that 
of  postal  service.  Although  the  number  of  post  offices  in  Illinois 
was  increased  from  nine  in  1814  to  sixteen  in  1817  and  new 
"post-roads"  were  established  at  nearly  every  session  of  congress, 
there  was  constant  demand  for  further  expansion  of  the  service. 
The  same  session  of  congress  which  passed  the  enabling  act  for 

'"Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1903,  p.  156. 
UTThwaites,  Early  Western  Travels,  11:252. 


126  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

Illinois  established,  by  act  of  April  20,  1818,  what  appears  to 
have  been  the  first  route  across  the  territory — "from  Belleville, 
by  William  Padfield's  and  the  seat  of  justice  of  Bond  county 
[Perryville],  to  Palmyra."  The  mail  from  the  east  destined 
for  the  settlements  on  the  west  side  of  Illinois  and  in  Missouri 
was  still  carried  down  the  Ohio  and  up  the  Mississippi  to  Kas- 
kaskia,  and  thence  via  Prairie  du  Rocher  and  Cahokia  to  St. 
Louis,  although  the  Missouri  legislature  as  early  as  February  16, 
1816  had  petitioned  for  direct  service  overland  from  Vincennes. 
Not  until  March  3,  1819  was  a  mail  route  established  "from 
Vincennes,  by  Carlisle  and  Belville,  in  Illinois,  to  St.  Louis." 
The  same  act  established  three  other  frontier  postal  routes: 
"From  Edwardsville,  by  Alton,  to  S.  Charles,  in  the  Missouri 
territory,  and  from  Edwardsville,  by  Ripley,  to  Perrysville 
....  From  Vincennes  by  Palestine,  to  York,  in  Illinois."138 

The  difficulties  experienced  by  new  settlements  in  the  interior 
with  reference  to  postal  facilities  are  indicated  by  a  petition 
drawn  up  in  the  English  settlement  probably  soon  after  the  estab- 
lishment of  Wanborough  in  August,  1818.  After  stating  that 
"our  correspondence  is  extensive  and  constant,"  the  petitioners 
declared  "that  more  than  usual  difficulties  exist  in  the  communi- 
cation with  our  present  Office  of  deposit  at  Princeton  [Indiana], 
which  is  nearly  forty  miles  from  us,  often  consuming  as  much 
time  in  the  transmission  thence  as  from  the  Eastern  States." 
They  asked,  therefore,  for  the  establishment  of  a  post  office  in 
the  settlement  "to  communicate  with  a  route  now  existing  be- 
tween Vincennes  and  Shawnee  Town,  on  the  Western  side  of 
the  Wabash,"  and  congress  in  the  following  year  deflected  this 
route  to  "pass  by  the  English  Prairie." 

During  the  later  years  of  the  territorial  period  the  mail  was 
supposed  to  be  carried  once  a  week  on  the  main  routes  and  once 
in  two  weeks  in  the  interior.  It  was  a  very  frequent  occurrence, 
however,  for  the  newspapers  to  announce  "No  eastern  mail  this 
week,"  the  principal  cause  of  delays  being  floods  on  the  Ohio 

""Seybert,  Statistical  Annals,  379;  Table  of  Post  Offices  in  the  United 
States  (1817);  Statutes  at  Large,  2:584;  3:132,  222,  337,  457,  507;  House 
Files,  February  16,  1816;  see  also  Intelligencer,  December  II,  1818,  January 
22,  November  6,  1817,  and  at  dates  indicated  in  the  text. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  127 

river.  In  its  issue  of  November  20,  1817,  for  example,  the 
Intelligencer  expressed  "regret  that  our  readers  are  again  com- 
pelled to  take  hold  of  a  barren  paper,  but  the  floods  which  have 
been  so  unseasonably  and  unexpectedly  poured  upon  us  of  late, 
have  prevented  the  usual  arrivals  of  the  eastern  mails;  three 
weeks  have  now  expired  since  we  have  had  a  mail."  There  was 
also  complaint  of  "unpardonable  neglect  of  post  masters  to  for- 
ward papers  by  the  first  opportunity."  From  Kaskaskia  the 
mail  was  forwarded  to  points  north  and  west;  consequently  the 
weekly  mail  to  that  place  was  particularly  heavy;  its  volume 
appears  to  have  been  so  great  that  at  times  "a  large  portion  of 
the  letters  and  papers  intended  for  that  quarter  is  necessarily 
delayed,  or  probably  entirely  thrown  out  at  Shawnoetown,  and 
either  does  not  come  on  at  all,  or  comes  on  after  the  information 
contained  is  stale  and  no  longer  useful."  In  consequence  of  this 
situation  John  Scott,  the  delegate  from  Missouri  territory 
appealed  to  the  postmaster-general  in  December,  1816,  for  a 
semi-weekly  service  to  Kaskaskia,  St.  Louis,  and  other  points  in 
Missouri.  It  was  not  until  April  22,  1818,  however,  that  the 
Intelligencer  was  able  to  announce  that  "a  contract  has  been 
entered  into  for  the  conveyance  of  the  mail  twice  a  week  from 
Shawnoetown  to  this  place,  and  on  to  Saint  Louis,  which  goes 
into  operation  on  the  first  of  May  next.  We  therefore  expect 
that  all  communications  by  mail  may  with  some  certainty  be 
relied  on.  It  is  also  designed  that  the  eastern  mail  shall  arrive 
at  Shawnoetown  twice  in  each  week." 

It  appears  to  have  been  in  connection  with  the  transportation 
of  the  mail  that  the  first  stage  service  in  Illinois  began.  No 
record  has  been  found  of  stage  lines  in  operation  during  the 
territorial  period  and  it  is  probable  that  the  mail  was  usually 
carried  on  horseback.  The  advertisement  of  the  general  post 
office  for  proposals  for  carrying  the  mail  over  the  new  routes 
established  in  Illinois  in  1818  announces  that  "where  the  pro- 
poser intends  to  convey  the  mail  in  the  body  of  a  stage  carriage, 
he  is  desired  to  state  it  in  his  proposals."  A  few  months  later, 
January  20,  1819,  James  Watson  informed  the  public  through 
the  columns  of  the  Intelligencer  "that  he  can  accommodate  four 


128  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

stage  passengers  each  trip  he  makes  with  the  mail,  to  St.  Louis. 
He  starts  from  Kaskaskia  every  Sunday  morning,  and  arrives 
at  St.  Louis  the  next  day  at  2  o'clock,  p.  m.  Returning,  he 
leaves  St.  Louis  every  Tuesday  morning,  and  arrives  at  Kas- 
kaskia the  ensuing  evening.  Fare — $4  each  passenger,  payable 
in  advance."  This  probably  marks  the  beginning  of  regular 
stage  service  in  Illinois.  Before  that  time,  travelers  were  obliged 
to  make  special  arrangements  or  provide  their  own  means  of 
conveyance. 

With  such  inadequate  means  of  transportation  by  land  it  is 
small  wonder  that  the  farmers  in  Illinois  in  1818  found  it  dif- 
ficult to  market  their  produce  profitably.  As  an  English  observer 
wrote  (November  4,  1819)  :  "Mr.  Nicholls,  a  cunning  Cale- 
donian, says,  that  farming,  except  near  the  rivers,  cannot 
answer."189  Certainly  his  remark  was  not  intended  as  a  reflec- 
tion on  the  productivity  of  the  soil,  for  from  all  accounts  the 
land  was  extraordinarily  fertile. 

One  visitor  in  Illinois  in  1817  wrote  home:  "The  common 
productions  of  the  country  are  much  the  same  as  those  of  Ken- 
tucky, Indian  corn,  wheat,  rye,  oats,  tobacco  and  hemp  are  raised 
with  as  much  facility  and  ease  as  in  the  neighborhood  of  Lex- 
ington, where  I  was  raised;  and  judging  from  information  and 
appearances  of  the  last  crops  I  am  persuaded  that  the  productions 
in  the  American  bottom  in  particular,  are  greater  and  reared 
with  more  ease  than  in  the  neighbourhood  of  my  nativity — Such 
is  its  luxuriancy  that  one  acre  of  land  in  that  bottom  has  yielded 
its  industrious  cultivator  no  bushels  of  Indian  corn  in  a  season, 
but  this  is  uncommon,  the  average  is  estimated  at  from  60  to 
70. — A  more  congenial  soil  for  general  cultivation  I  believe  no 
where  exists,  it  may  be  called  the  Elysium  of  America."140  The 
"American  bottom"  to  which  the  writer  referred  extended  along 
the  Mississippi  from  the  Wood  river  to  the  Kaskaskia;  it  was 
about  80  or  90  miles  in  length  and  from  4  to  7  in  width,  with 
nearly  equal  portions  of  prairie  and  timbered  land.  The  editors 
of  the  Intelligencer  made  the  same  claims  for  this  country  as 

"*Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels,  11:218. 
""Intelligencer,  May  14,  1817. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  129 

the  writer  of  the  letter  already  quoted,  but  added :  "The  upper 
part  of  the  territory,  we  learn  is  equally  abundant  in  the  produc- 
tions of  the  soil."141  A  letter  descriptive  of  the  western  country 
written  early  in  1818  and  printed  in  the  Lynchburg  Press  had  the 
following  to  say:  "The  Illinois  Territory,  I  have  no  doubt, 
furnishes  greater  inducements  to  emigration,  than  any  other 
Territory  belonging  to  the  United  States,  to  such  men  as  are  not 
holders  of  Slaves.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  one  hand 
there  can  make  as  much  annually,  as  any  three  in  any  other  part 
with  which  I  am  acquainted.  It  is  far  the  most  fertile  soil  in 
the  U.  States;  and  quantity  of  prairie  gives  it  advantages  over 
and  above  what  it  would  enjoy,  from  fertility  alone.  In  the 
general,  the  farmer  has  nothing  to  do,  but  fence  in  his  fields: 
plough  his  ground  and  plant  his  crop.  He  may  then  expect, 
from  an  acre,  from  50  to  100  bushels  corn;  and  from  10  to  50 
of  wheat;  the  quality  of  both  which  articles  is  superior  to  that 
of  any  I  ever  saw.  Moreover,  much  less  labor  than  usual  is 
requisite.  A  farm  of  any  size  may  be  gotten,  free  from  grubs, 
stones,  roots  and  every  obstruction  to  the  plough.  In  no 
instance  is  ploughing  required  more  than  twice  and  hoeing  never : 
with  these,  the  farmer  keeps  his  fields  cleaner,  than  they  are 
where  4  or  5  ploughings,  and  2  or  3  hoeings  are  customary.  One 
man  can  cultivate  40  acres  in  corn ;  which  quantity  of  ground,  he 
can  in  the  fall,  sow  in  wheat."142 

This  writer's  testimony  regarding  the  ease  with  which  the 
ground  was  worked  is  confirmed  by  a  settler  from  Vermont. 
Under  date  of  September  12,  1818  Gershom  Flagg  wrote  from 
Edwardsville  :148  "The  method  of  Raising  Corn  here  is  to 
plough  the  ground  once  then  furrow  it  both  ways  and  plant  the 
Corn  4  feet  each  way  and  plough  between  it  3  or  4  times  in  the 
Summer  but  never  hoe  it  at  all."  Yet  the  corn  grew  "from  12 
to  15  feet  high  on  an  average." 

Regarding  the  price  paid  for  corn  Flagg  wrote :  "The  price 
of  Corn  last  harvest  was  33  1/3  cents  in  the  spring  50  cents  in 

'"Intelligencer,  September  18,  1817. 

™Ibid.,  March  25,  1818. 

""Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1910,  p.  162. 


130  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

the  summer  75  cents."  From  the  other  side  of  the  territory  a 
young  farmer  wrote  home:  "Corn  is  worth  in  this  settlement 
75  cents  in  other  places  around  us  they  have  had  the  [conscience  ?] 
to  take  a  dollar  per  bushel  I  do  not  think  there  is  is  [sic] 
grain  enough  in  the  country  to  supply  it  oweing  to  the  rapid  settle- 
ment."144 Yet  this  farmer  was  concerned,  not  with  raising  for 
the  market,  but  only  for  his  own  use.  "Our  corn,"  he  wrote, 
"we  must  not  neglect  under  the  penalty  of  starving."  The  atti- 
tude of  this  man  seems  to' have  been  the  prevalent  one  at  that 
time;  each  and  all  raised  produce  not  primarily  to  sell,  but 
to  save  themselves  from  being  obliged  to  buy.  Accordingly  the 
newcomers  who  reached  Illinois  too  late  in  the  season  to  plant 
found  that  the  settlers  took  advantage  of  their  extremity.  An 
early  settler  in  Jefferson  county,  according  to  the  local  histo- 
rian, "long  followed  the  business  of  going  to  Carmi,  a  distance 
of  forty  miles,  with  two  or  three  pack-horses,  and  bringing  back 
meal  to  sell  to  these  'movers.'  This,"  comments  the  writer, 
"would  seem  a  small  business  in  this  day  of  railroads,  as  he 
could  only  bring  two  or  three  sacks  of  meal  at  a  time,  but  as  he 
sold  it  at  $2  a  bushel,  it  was  a  lucrative  business  for  that  early 
day."145  It  is  probable  that  the  surplus  meal  for  sale  came  almost 
entirely  from  the  miller  who  received  it  in  payment  for  grinding. 
The  payment  was  regulated  by  law  and  was  entirely  in  kind. 
By  the  law  of  1819  the  charge  at  a  water  mill  for  grinding 
wheat,  rye,  malt,  or  choppings  was  one-eighth  of  the  whole,  for 
corn,  oats,  barley,  or  buckwheat  one-seventh.  At  a  horse-mill, 
the  charge  was  doubled  unless  the  farmer's  horse  furnished  the 
motive  power.  Using  the  term  farmer  to  include  all  those  who 
raised  only  for  their  own  consumption,  there  is  probably  no 
exaggeration  in  the  statement  made  during  the  campaign  of 
1818  that  ninety-nine  in  a  hundred  of  the  men  in  Illinois  were 
fanners. 

This  meant  that  there  was  little  division  of  labor.  It  meant 
also  that  though  nearly  every  man  farmed,  he  did  not  spend  his 
whole  time  at  it.  The  frontiersmen,  who  made  up  so  large  a 

144G.  Knight  to  C.  Knight,  Palmyra,  June  21,  1818. 
145Perrin,  History  of  Jefferson  County,  124.    See  also  127. 


A  PRAIRIE  PLOW 

[Original  owned  by  W.  O.  Converse,  Springfield 


ASH  HOPPER 

Original  owned  by  \V.  O.  Converse,  Springfield] 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  131 

part  of  the  population,  spent  the  remainder  of  their  time  in  hunt- 
ing or  idleness.  They  felt  no  need  for  the  things  with  which 
they  could  not  furnish  themselves  by  their  own  labor.  Many 
detailed  pictures  of  this  pioneer  life  have  been  recorded;  the 
following  is  an  interesting  example.146  "The  pursuits  of  the 
people  were  agricultural.  A  very  few  merchants  supplied  them 
with  the  few  necessaries  which  could  not  be  produced  or  manu- 
factured at  home.  The  farmer  raised  his  own  provisions;  tea 
and  coffee  were  scarcely  used,  except  on  some  grand  occasions. 
The  farmer's  sheep  furnished  wool  for  his  winter  clothing;  he 
raised  cotton  and  flax  for  his  summer  clothing.  His  wife  and 
daughters  spun,  wove,  and  made  it  into  garments.  A  little 
copperas  and  indigo,  with  the  bark  of  trees,  furnished  dye  stuffs 
for  coloring.  The  fur  of  the  raccoon,  made  him  a  hat  or  a  cap. 
The  skins  of  deer  or  of  his  cattle,  tanned  at  a  neighboring  tan- 
yard,  or  dressed  by  himself,  made  him  shoes  or  moccasins. 
Boots  were  rarely  seen,  even  in  the  towns.  And  a  log  cabin, 
made  entirely  of  wood,  without  glass,  nails,  hinges,  or  locks, 
furnished  the  residence  of  many  a  contented  and  happy  family. 
The  people  were  quick  and  ingenious  to  supply  by  invention,  and 
with  their  own  hands,  the  lack  of  mechanics  and  artificers.  Each 
farmer,  as  a  general  thing,  built  his  own  house,  made  his  own 
ploughs  and  harness,  bedsteads,  chairs,  stools,  cupboards,  and 
tables.  The  carts  and  wagons  for  hauling,  were  generally  made 
without  iron,  without  tires,  or  boxes,  and  were  run  without  tar, 
and  might  be  heard  creaking  as  they  lumbered  along  the  roads, 
for  the  distance  of  a  mile  or  more. 

"As  an  example  of  the  talents  of  this  people  to  supply  all 
deficiencies,  and  provide  against  accidents  by  a  ready  invention, 
the  following  anecdote  is  related  of  James  Lemon,  one  of  the 
old  sort  of  Baptist  preachers,  formerly  of  Monroe  county,  but 
now  deceased.  Mr.  Lemon  was  a  farmer,  and  made  all  his  own 
harness.  The  collars  for  his  horses  were  made  of  straw  or  corn 
husks,  plaited  and  sewed  together  by  himself.  Being  engaged 
in  breaking  a  piece  of  stubble  ground,  and  having  turned  out 
for  dinner,  he  left  his  harness  on  the  beam  of  his  plough.  His 

""Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  41-42. 


132  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

son,  a  wild  youth,  who  was  employed  with  a  pitchfork  to  clear 
the  plough  of  the  accumulating  stubble,  staid  behind,  and  hid  one 
of  the  horse  collars.  This  he  did  that  he  might  rest  whilst  his 
father  made  a  new  collar.  But  the  old  man,  returning  in  the 
afternoon  and  missing  his  collar,  mused  for  a  few  minutes,  and 
then,  very  much  to  the  disappointment  of  his  truant  son,  he 
deliberately  pulled  off  his  leather  breeches,  stuffed  the  legs  of 
them  with  stubble,  straddled  them  across  the  neck  of  his  horse 
for  a  collar,  and  ploughed  the  remainder  of  the  day,  as  bare- 
legged as  he  came  into  the  world.  In  a  more  civilized  country, 
where  the  people  are  better  acquainted  with  the  great  laws  which 
control  the  division  of  labor,  a  half  day  would  have  been  lost  in 
providing  for  such  a  mishap." 

Under  these  economic  conditions  women  had  a  heavy  and 
versatile  role  to  play.  "The  wool,  the  flax  and  the  cotton  were 
raised  on  the  farms  by  the  men,  but  this  material  passed  in  its 
raw  state  into  the  hands  of  the  women  and  came  out  cloth  ready 
for  the  making,  and  the  making  was  done  by  the  women,  and 
in  many  instances,  the  clothing  for  an  entire  family  was  made 
from  the  raw  material,  to  its  finishing  stitch,  by  the  one  woman, 
who  was  cook,  laundress,  nurse,  and  gardner  [sic],  as  well  as 
housekeeper  and  wife;  and  who  made  her  own  soap,  or  did  with- 
out, and  in  the  intervals  of  resting,  knit  all  the  hosiery  for  a  large 

family The  old  lady  that  picked  up  her  knitting  to  do 

a  few  rounds  while  the  crowd  gathered  at  her  husband's  funeral, 
may  have  been  an  extreme  type,  but  the  anecdote  illustrates  the 
industry  that  had  become  a  fixed  habit  of  their  lives."147 

Of  ready  money  there  was  little,  and  little  was  needed.  "Many 
a  family  lived  a  whole  year  without  the  possession  or  use  of 
fifty  dollars  in  cash.  Personal  property,  therefore,  during  many 
years,  consisted  almost  exclusively  of  the  products  of  the  farm 
and  of  articles  manufactured  by  the  citizens  at  their  own  homes. 
The  farms,  in  those  days,  were  worked  chiefly  by  the  use  of  oxen, 
horses  being  employed  mainly  for  riding,  and  for  ploughing  after 
the  corn  came  up  in  the  spring.  Even  wagons  and  carts  were 
generally  drawn  by  oxen,  not  only  for  the  hauling  of  corn,  hay, 

"'Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1904,  p.  509-510. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  133 

wood,  rails,  etc.,  but  for  church-going  and  traveling.  The  pro- 
ductions of  the  farms  were  very  few,  such  as  a  little  fall  or 
spring  wheat,  oats,  Indian  corn,  cotton,  flax,  in  some  cases  castor- 
beans,  and  as  to  fruits,  scarcely  anything  but  apples  and  some 
peaches.  But  wild  plums  and  grapes,  of  good  quality,  were 
produced  in  large  quantities  in  the  timbered  districts,  especially 
at  the  edges  of  the  prairies.  There  was  no  machinery  used  on 
the  farms  before  1835  or  1840.  There  were  no  corn-planters, 
no  reaping  or  threshing  machines,  or  fanning-mills.  Corn  was 
planted  by  hand,  wheat,  oats,  and  grass  were  cut  with  sickles 
or  scythes  by  hand,  cotton  was  gathered  and  picked  by  hand,  flax 
was  broken  and  scutched  by  hand,  cotton  and  wool  were  carded 
into  rolls  by  hand,  and  spinning  and  weaving  were  done  by  hand. 
Grain  was  trodden  out  by  horses  or  beaten  out  with  flails,  and 
winnowed  by  the  breezes  or  with  sheets  used  like  so  many  great 
fans.  The  only  articles  employed  by  the  farmers  that  could 
properly  be  called  machines,  were  flax-breaks,  hackles,  looms, 
hand-mills,  and  possibly  an  occasional  cider-mill.  There  were, 
however,  at  intervals  of  ten  or  twenty  miles,  water-mills  and 
horse-mills  for  grinding  corn,  wheat,  rye,  and  barley;  and  from 
the  earliest  settlement  of  the  country  there  were  not  wanting 
distilleries  for  the  manufacture  of  whiskey,  to  minister  to  the 
cravings  of  the  thirsty  people,  who  claimed  that  they  could  not 
keep  warm  in  winter  or  cool  in  summer,  or  perform  their  hard 
work  without  fainting,  unless  they  could  be  assisted  by  the  free 
use  of  the  'good  creature.'  But  there  were  no  breweries  to  be 
found,  unless  among  the  few  Germans. 

"The  clothing  of  the  people,  especially  in  the  first  settlement 
of  the  country,  consisted  almost  wholly  of  materials  prepared 
by  the  several  families  for  themselves.  The  most  frequent  excep- 
tion to  this  remark  was  found  in  the  leather  used  for  shoes, 
which  was  often  tanned  and  dressed  by  some  one  man  in  a 
neighborhood,  who  gave  a  part  of  his  time  to  a  small  tannery, 
of  which  he  was  the  proprietor.  But  many  were  at  once  tan- 
ners, shoe-makers,  and  farmers;  and  their  wives  and  daughters 
manufactured  the  flax  and  cotton,  raised  by  them,  into  garments 
f6r  the  family.  For  during  the  first  quarter  of  the  century, 


134  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

cotton  as  well  as  flax  was  produced  on  many  farms,  and  spin- 
ning-wheels were  manufactured  in  almost  every  neighborhood 
for  the  use  of  the  families,  which  were  purchased  from  the 
makers  by  an  exchange  of  various  productions  from  the  farms 
around.  As  lately  as  eleven  or  twelve  years  ago  [about  1868],  I 
found,  on  visiting  Bond  County,  an  old  wheel-wright  still  devoted 
to  his  former  work,  making  spinning-wheels,  both  large  and 
small,  not  to  sell  as  curiosities,  but  to  supply  an  actual  demand 
from  families  that  yet  preferred  to  manufacture  their  own  cloth- 
ing as  in  former  times.  Not  only  were  the  materials  and  the  cloth 
prepared,  but  the  dyeing  was  done  in  the  family;  the  bark  of 
trees,  especially  of  the  butter-nut,  and  indigo  raised  on  the  farm, 
being  used  for  this  purpose.  And  then  the  mother  made  up  the 
clothing  for  the  household.  In  many  cases,  deer-skins  were 
dressed  by  the  men,  and  made  into  hunting-shirts,  pantaloons, 
and  moccasons  [sic]  by  the  women,  all  in  the  same  family.  The 
hunting-shirts  were  frequently  ornamented  with  a  fringe  on  the 
lower  edge  of  the  cape  and  at  the  bottom  of  the  garment,  which 
presented  a  not  unpleasing  appearance.  Shoes  were  often  con- 
fined, except  in  cold  weather,  to  the  adult  females;  the  men  and 
children  going  barefoot  in  spring,  summer,  and  fall,  unless  they 
had  occasion  to  appear  in  a  public  assembly.  I  have  many  a 
time  seen  even  young  women  carry  their  shoes  in  their  hands 
until  they  came  near  to  church,  and  then  put  them  on  before 
coming  to  the  door  and  entering.  The  men's  hats  for  the  sum- 
mer were  commonly  made  of  wheat  straw,  rudely  platted  and 
sewed  together  by  the  women.  Winter  hats,  usually  of  wool, 
were,  of  necessity,  purchased  from  a  manufacturer,  who  could 
almost  always  be  found  in  some  village  not  far  distant.  The 
clothes  of  the  women,  like  those  of  the  men,  were  almost  entirely 
of  home  manufacture,  except  in  the  older  villages.  Their  bon- 
nets were  occasionally  purchased  from  the  stores,  but  more 
commonly  they  were  of  the  simple  Virginia  style,  made  of 
domestic  materials,  and  kept  in  place  either  by  pasteboard  or 
wooden  ribs.""8 

'"Patterson,   "Early  Society  in   Southern  Illinois,"  in  Fergus  Historical 
Series,  no.  14:109-111. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  135 

When  the  English  farmers  came  to  Illinois  they  expected,  with 
plenty  of  land  and  capital,  to  be  able  to  carry  on  farming  on  a 
large  scale.  They  soon  found  to  their  surprise  that  their  plans 
were  impracticable  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  securing  laborers. 
Accustomed  as  they  were  to  a  social  system  in  which  there  was 
a  numerous  class  of  laborers  who  accepted  their  humble  posi- 
tion as  a  matter  of  course  and  seldom  aspired  to  raise  themselves 
above  it,  these  Englishmen  had  great  difficulty  in  adjusting  them- 
selves to  a  society  in  which  there  was  no  definite  and  permanent 
servant  class.  "No  white  man  or  woman,"  wrote  one  of  the 
Englishmen,  "will  bear  being  called  a  servant,  but  they  will  gladly 
do  your  work.  Your  hirelings  must  be  spoken  to  with  Civility 
and  cheerfulness."  Then,  in  a  tone  which  suggests  that  he 
expected  incredulity  from  his  English  readers,  the  writer  added : 
"Respectable  families  from  Kentucky  ....  do  all  their  domestic 
work,  except  washing,  with  their  own  hands."  The  reason  for 
this  absence  of  a  laboring  class  was  not  hard  to  find.  To  quote 
from  the  same  writer :  "A  man  used  to  work  will  earn  in  one 
day  what  will  suffice  for  the  simple  wants  of  a  Backwoodsman  a 
whole  week.  If  he  be  sober  and  industrious,  in  two  years  he 
can  enter  a  quarter  section  of  land,  buy  a  horse,  a  plough,  and 
tools.  The  lowest  price  for  labour  now  is  -13$  per  month  with 
board  and  lodging.  I  will  give  two  years  net  proceeds  in  figures. 

$<t 
W 

12  months  at  13$ 156$      Clothing  for  two  years — say 100 

12  months  at  13  156       One  quarter  of  land 80 

One  horse  and  harness  and  plough 100 

$312        Axe  grubbing  hoe  &c IO 

Gun  and  powder  &c 15 

$305 

"After  putting  in  his  crop  of  maize,  he  can  supply  himself  with 
meat  and  some  money  by  hunting,  or  he  can  earn  $i  per  day  in 
splitting  rails  for  his  neighbours.  Many  men  begin  as  independ- 
ent farmers  with  half  the  above  mentioned  sum,  but  they  are 
thorough  Backwoodsmen. 

"Now,  is  it  not  evident  that  while  land  can  be  bought,  no  matter 
how  far  from  navigable  rivers,  at  $2  per  acre,  and  when  there 
are  tracts  they  may  'squat'  upon  for  nothing,  that  labour  will 
be  for  many  years  limited  in  price  only  by  the  ability  of  those 


136  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

who  want  it,  to  pay  for  it.  It  is  indeed  the  only  expence ;  but  is 
so  overwhelming  that  I  would  rather  farm  in  old  England  with 
a  capital  of  2  or  3ooof  than  on  the  North  West  of  the  Ohio.  If 
we  consider  the  immense  territory  to  the  North  West  of  us,  and 
the  roving  spirit  of  the  Americans,  we  may  wonder  that  any 
work  can  be  hired.  The  truth  is,  none  are  to  be  hired  but  Emi- 
grants from  the  Eastern  States,  who  intend  to  be  land  owners  in 
one,  two,  or  three  years.  And  these  are  few  in  number :  for  the 
steady  and  prudent  earn  the  money  at  home  and  bring  it  with 
them."149  For  the  English,  the  first  solution  of  the  difficulty 
was  to  import  labor.  While  still  at  Princeton,  Indiana,  Birkbeck 
wrote  to  a  prospective  settler:  "A  single  settler  may  get  his 
labour  done  by  the  piece  on  moderate  terms,  not  higher  than  in 
some  parts  of  England;  but  if  many  families  settle  together,  all 
requiring  this  article,  and  none  supplying  it,  they  must  obtain  it 
from  elsewhere.  Let  them  import  English  labourers,  or  make 
advantageous  proposals  to  such  as  are  continually  arriving  at  the 
eastern  ports."  Flower's  scheme  was  to  import  those  being 
paid  poor  rates  in  England ;  and  he  offered  to  pay  to  the  parishes 
half  the  expense  of  getting  them  to  Illinois.150  But  importa- 
tion was  soon  found  to  be  only  a  very  temporary  solution  of 
the  problem.  As  early  as  June,  1818,  Fordham  wrote  of  Birk- 
beck's  colony :  "His  English  labourers  have  already  caught  the 
desire  to  be  land  owners."151 

Before  many  months  the  English  were  forced  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  Illinois  was  a  good  location  only  for  the  small  farmer 
who  was  willing  to  work  his  land  without  hired  labor.  There 
was  only  one  alternative;  that  was  to  use  slaves.  Fordham 
shows  by  what  process  of  reasoning  an  Englishman  could  reach 
this  conclusion.  In  June,  1818  he  wrote:  "I  would  not  have 
upon  my  conscience  the  moral  guilt  of  extending  Slavery  over 
countries  now  free  from  it,  for  the  whole  North  Western  Ter- 
ritory. But,  if  it  should  take  place,  I  do  not  see  why  I  should 
not  make  use  of  it.  If  I  do  not  have  servants  I  cannot  farm; 

14*Ogg,  Fordham's  Personal  Narrative,  124-125,  210-211. 
""Fearon,  Sketches  of  America,  335;  Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels, 
II  -.279. 

,  Fordham's  Personal  Narrative,  212. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  137 

and  there  are  no  free  labourers  here,  except  a  few  so  worth- 
less, and  yet  so  haughty,  that  an  English  Gentleman  can  do 
nothing  with  them."  Two  months  later  he  wrote  at  even  greater 
length:  "I  cannot  think  that  any  elderly  man,  especially  if  he 
have  a  family  delicately  brought  up,  would  live  comfortably  in 
a  free  state.  In  a  slave  State,  if  he  have  wealth,  say,  5ooc£ 
and  upwards,  he  may  raise  upon  his  own  farm  all  the  food  and 
raiment,  the  latter  manufactured  at  home,  necessary  to  supply 
the  wants  of  his  own  family. 

"This  has  been,  till  lately,  the  universal  economy  of  the  first 
Kentucky  families.  Thus,  without  living  more  expensively  than 
in  a  free  state,  a  family  may  have  the  comforts  of  domestic 
services,  and  yet  find  plenty  of  employment  within  doors;  not 
sordid  slavery  that  wears  out  the  health,  and  depresses  the  spirits 
of  Ohio,  but  useful  yet  light  labours,  that  may  be  remitted  and 
resumed  at  pleasure. 

"There  is  more  difference  between  the  manners  of  the  female 
sex  on  the  East  and  West  sides  of  the  Ohio  River  than  on  the 
East  and  West  shores  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Servitude  in  any 
form  is  an  evil,  but  the  structure  of  civilized  society  is  raised 
upon  it.  If  the  minds  of  women  are  left  unimproved,  their 
morals  will  be  at  the  mercy  of  any  man.  It  is  much  worse  where 
there  is  no  superior  rank  to  influence  them  by  example,  or  to 
awe  them  by  disapprobation.  I  am  conscious  that  I  repeat  again 
and  again  the  same  arguments — or  rather  I  state  similar  facts; 
but  it  is  an  important  subject. 

"Society  may  suffer  more  by  the  abjectness  of  Slaves  than  by 
the  want  of  servants,  and  a  father  of  a  family  would  prefer  to 
live  where  there  are  good  free  servants  as  in  Europe,  or  where 
slaves  have  more  liberty  of  action  than  servants,  as  in  Kentucky. 
The  question  in  these  wildernesses  is  this :  Shall  we  have  civili- 
zation and  refinement,  or  sordid  manners  and  semi-barbarism, 
till  time  shall  produce  so  much  inequality  of  condition  that  the 
poor  man  must  serve  the  rich  man  for  his  daily  bread  ?"152 

Not  having  the  Englishman's  prejudices  to  overcome,  many 

""Ogg,  Fordham's  Personal  Narrative,  210,  228-229. 


138  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

Americans  had  arrived  much  more  readily  at  the  same  conclu- 
sion. The  result  was  that  the  provision  of  the  northwest  ordi- 
nance prohibiting  slavery  was  in  practice  continually  evaded 
under  cloak  of  the  indenture  law,  which  made  it  possible  to 
indenture  negroes  under  conditions  amounting  to  slavery.  In 
1818  the  indentured  servants  in  the  territory  amounted  to  one- 
fortieth  of  the  population :  a  large  proportion  when  one  consid- 
ers the  extreme  poverty  of  most  of  the  settlers.  That  the  inden- 
ture system  was  virtually  identical  with  slavery  is  readily  seen 
in  the  form  of  indenture  drawn  up  when  a  negro  was  trans- 
ferred from  one  master  to  another.  One  is  headed :  "General 
Indenture  concerning  sale  of  negro  girl."  Another,  more  de- 
tailed, reads  as  follows  :163 

THIS  INDENTURE  made  this  twenty  second  day  of 
June  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  one  thousand  Eight  hun- 
dred and  fifteen,  between  Silvey  a  Negroe  Woman 
about  the  age  of  twenty  four  years,  last  out  of  the  State 
of  Kaintuck  and  Livingston  County,  of  the  one  part, 
and  John  Morris  of  the  Illinois  Territory  and  Gallaton 
County  of  the  other  part,  WITNESSETH,  that  the  said 
Silvey  for  and  in  consideration  of  the  sum  of  four 
hundred  Dollars,  to  me  paid  in  hand  courant  Money  of 
the  United  States,  at  or  before  the  signing  and  deliv- 
ery of  these  presents,  the  Receipt  whereof  She  doth 
hereby  acknoledge,  and  in  conformity  to  a  law  of  the 
said  Teritory  respecting  the  Introduction  of  Negroes 
and  Melattoes  into  the  saim,  hath  put  placed  and  bind 
himself  to  the  said  Morris,  to  serve  him  from  the  date 
hereof,  during  the  Term  and  in  full  of  forty  years 
next  enshuing,  or  in  other  words  from  the  date  hereoff 
untill  the  twenty  second  day  of  June,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty  five,  during 
all  which  Term,  the  said  Silvey,  the  said  John  Morris 
shall  well  and  truly  serve,  and  all  his  lawfull  commands 
every  whair  obey,  and  that  She  shall  not  embezzel  or 
waiste  her  said  Masters  Goods  nor  lend  them  to  any 
person  without  her  said  Masters  consent,  or  leave. 
Nor  shall  She  at  any  time  absent  herself  from  her  said 
Masters  Service,  or  leave,  but  as  a  good  and  faith  full 
servant,  shall  and  will  at  all  times  demean  herself 
towards  her  said  Master,  during  the  Term  aforesaid. 

"*Deed  record.  A.  pp.  2-3,  in  Pope  county. 


RUINS  OF  FORT  DE  CHARTRES 
[From  Wild,  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  (1841),  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society 


A  LOG  TAVERN 

[Copied  from  Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels,  vol.  12,  by  permission  of  the  publishers, 
The  Arthur  H.  Clark  Company] 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  139 

And  the  said  John  Morrice  covenants  and  agrees  too 
and  with  the  said  Silvey,  that  he  will  furnish  her  with 
good  and  suficient  Meat,  Drink,  lodging  and  apparell, 
together  with  all  other  needful  conveniences  fit  for  such 
a  Servant,  during  the  said  Term.  And  for  the  true 
performance  of  each  of  the  above  and  aforementioned, 
Covenants,  and .  Agreements,  each  of  the  above  and 
aforementioned  parties,  bind  themselves  each  to  the 
other,  firmly  by  these  presents. 

In  testimony  whereof  the  aforementioned  parties, 
have  hereunto  set  their  hands  and  Seals  the  date  first 

her 
above    written.     Silvey       mark      Executed    and  ac- 

knoledged  in  presence  of  Samuel  Omelveny 

Deputy  Clerk,  for  Joseph  M.  Street,  Clerk  of  the   John 

Court,  of  Common  pleas  for  Gallatin  County — )  Morris  © 

June  25th  1816.  Attest  Johna  Scott  Recorder  of 
Pope  County. 

Accompanying  the  above  Indenture,  is  the  following 
Bond,  To  wit, 

United  States  Illinois  Territory,  Gallatin  County, 
'Know  all  men  by  these  presents,  that  we  John  Morris 
and  Isom  Harrison  of  the  Illinois  Teritory  and  County 
of  Gallaton,  are  held  and  firmly  bound,  unto  Ninian 
Edwards  Governor  of  the  Illinois  Teritory,  and  his 
Successors  in  Office,  in  the  sum  of  four  hundred  Dol- 
lars, lawfull  Money  of  the  United  States,  to  the  pay- 
ment of  the  sum  aforesaid,  to  be  well  and  truly  made 
and  dun  we  bind  ourselves  our  heirs  Executors  and 
Administrators  and  Assigns,  Jointly  and  severally,  by 
these  presents  Given  under  our  hands  and  Seals  this 
22nd  day  of  June  1815. 

The  Condition  of  the  above  obligation  is  such, 
whereas  on  this  day  an  Indenture  was  made  and  entered 
into  by  and  between,  John  Morrice  [?]  and  silvey  a 
Negroe  Woman  aged  about  twenty  four  years,  and 
the  above  named,  John  Morrice,  by  which  the  said 
Indenture,  the  said  Silvey  agrees,  to  serve  the  said 
John  Morrice  the  Term  of  forty  years,  pursuant  to  a 
law  of  the  Teritory,  respecting  the  Introduction  of 
Negroes  and  Melatoes  into  the  saim,  at  the  expiration 
of  the  said  Term  the  said  Silvey  will  exceed  the  age  of 
forty  years.  Now  if  the  said  John  Morrice  doth  not 
suffer  or  permit  the  said  Silvey  to  become  a  County 


140  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

charge,  after  the  expiration  of  the  said  Sum,  then  this 
obligation  to  be  voide,  otherwise  to  remain  in  full  force 
and  virtue  in  law.  Given  under  our  hands  and  Seals, 
this  22nd  of  June  1815. 

John  Morris     (Seal) 
I.  Harrison      (Seal) 

Executed  in  presence  of  Samuel  Omelveny   ) 
Deputy  Clark  for  Joseph  M.  Street  Clark   ) 

Indenture  seems  to  have  been  recorded  June  25,  1816. 

From  this  it  is  seen  that  the  price  paid  for  the  negro  was 
equal  to  that  paid  at  an  out  and  out  sale,  the  period  of  the  in- 
denture was  made  to  cover  the  lifetime  of  the  slave,  the  condi- 
tions under  which  the  indentured  servant  was  obliged  to  work 
and  live  did  not  differ  from  the  conditions  of  bondage  south  of 
the  Ohio  river.  Although  the  indenture  law  made  it  possible  for 
slave  owners  to  settle  in  Illinois,  many  hesitated  to  do  so  for  fear 
conditions  would  be  changed  when  Illinois  became  a  state,  as  it 
was  bound  soon  to  do.  For  that  reason  they  preferred  to  cross 
Illinois  and  locate  in  Missouri,  which  was  free  from  the  restric- 
tion contained  in  the  northwest  ordinance.  Between  1810  and 
1820,  according  to  the  United  States  census,  the  slave  popula- 
tion of  Missouri  increased  from  3,011  to  10,222;  and  many 
settlers  in  Illinois  regarded  with  jealous  eyes  the  great  economic 
advantage  which  Missouri  was  gaining  over  their  state. 

In  1818,  then,  Illinois  was  suffering  economically  from  two 
handicaps;  the  lack  of  adequate  transportation  facilities  and  the 
lack  of  a  laboring  class.  To  the  greater  part  of  the  population, 
however,  these  handicaps  were  of  no  serious  concern.  The 
frontiersman  was  economically  independent;  he  might  exchange 
with  his  neighbors  in  a  spirit  of  friendliness,  but  he  did  not  buy 
or  sell  commodities  or  labor.  The  effort  to  raise  Illinois  to  a 
higher  economic  plane  was  made  by  only  a  small  class — those 
whom  Fordham  called  the  "enterprising  men."  "This  class,"  he 
states,  "consists  of  Young  Doctors,  Lawyers,  Storekeepers, 
farmers,  mechanics  etc.,  who  found  towns,  trade,  speculate  in 
land,  and  begin  the  fabric  of  Society."15*  The  work  of  this  class 
merits  consideration. 

mOgg,  Fordham's  Personal  Narrative,  126. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  141 

The  farmer  who  wished  to  do  more  than  produce  for  his  own 
consumption  turned  to  stock  raising.  It  involved  very  little  ad- 
ditional labor,  and  the  only  expense  was  the  initial  cost.  "Cows," 
states  one  writer,  "are  generally  suffered  to  run  in  the  woods, 
and  return  to  their  calves  mornings  and  evenings."  "Hogs," 
wrote  another  settler,  "will  live  &  get  fat  in  the  Woods  and 
Prairies.  I  have  seen  some  as  fat  upon  Hickorynuts,  Acorns, 
Pecons  &  Walnuts,  as  ever  I  did  those  that  were  fat[t]ed  upon 
Corn."155  According  to  the  same  writer,  horses  and  cattle  could 
live  all  winter  along  the  rivers  without  feeding.  Even  where 
this  was  not  possible,  the  wild  grass  could  be  gathered  as  hay. 
"The  grass  on  the  Prairies,"  wrote  one  farmer,  "is  now  [June 
2 1st]  about  waist  high  and  looks  beautiful  we  shall  cut  what 
hay  we  shall  want  whenever  we  get  through  with  our  corn." 
Of  the  quality  of  this  hay  Faux  says:  "What  is  gathered,  is 
green  and  fragrant,  but  not  so  sweet  as  fine  English  hay.  It  is 
hard,  harsh,  and  dry."  Yet  another  maintained  that  the  cattle 
came  out  in  the  spring  "as  fat  as  sheep  from  coleseed."158 

The  profits  to  be  made  were  temptingly  large,  considering  the 
purchasing  power  of  money  at  the  time.  Richard  Flower,  for 
instance,  writes  of  buying  bullocks  at  sixteen  or  seventeen  dol- 
lars and  selling  them  the  next  year,  at  the  Albion  market,  for 
twenty-eight  to  thirty-one  dollars  each.  The  profits  had  to  be 
large,  however,  in  order  to  cover  the  heavy  risks  incurred  in 
raising  live  stock  in  such  a  wild  country.  Many  animals  strayed 
away  into  the  woods,  or  were  shot,  accidentally  or  maliciously, 
by  hunters.  Wolves  were  a  constant  menace,  particularly  to 
'sheep  and  hogs.  On  one  occasion  they  killed  fifty  of  Flower's 
sheep  in  one  raid,  in  spite  of  all  the  shepherd  could  do.  Of  con- 
ditions in  Madison  county  Gershom  Flagg  wrote :  "All  that  pre- 
vents this  country  being  as  full  of  Wild  hogs  as  of  Deer  is  the 
Wolves  which  kill  the  pigs  when  the  sows  are  not  shut  up  til  the 
pigs  are  a  few  weeks  old."157  Flies  were  more  than  merely  a  nui- 
sance. To  quote  from  the  preceding  writer:  "Cattle  &  horses 

1MThwaites,  Early  Western  Travels,  10:281;  Illinois  State  Historical 
Society,  Transactions,  1910,  p.  158. 

""G.  Knight  to  C.  Knight,  June  21,  1818;  Thwaites,  Early  Western  Trav- 
els, 10:122-123;  11:258. 

mlllinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1910,  p.  15$. 


142  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

do  very  well  in  this  Country  they  get  very  fat  by  the  middle  of 
June.  They  do  not  gain  much  after  this  being  so  harrassed  by 
swarms  of  flies  which  prevent  their  feeding  any  in  the  heat  of 
the  day.  They  were  so  bad  upon  horses  that  it  is  almost  impos- 
sible to  travel  from  the  15  June  til  the  ist  Sept  unles  [sic]  a  horse 
is  covered  with  blankets.  Where  ever  a  fly  lights  upon  a  horse  a 
drop  of  blood  starts.  I  have  seen  white  horses  red  with  blood 
that  these  flies  had  drawn  out  of  him.  As  the  Country  becomes 
settled  these  flies  disappear." 

Even  these  disadvantages,  however,  were  not  severe  enough 
to  counterbalance  the  advantage  of  the  slight  expense;  another 
advantage  of  weight  was  the  sureness  of  the  market.  In  1818 
the  farmers  were  beginning  "to  raise  stock  for  exportation 
....  money  flowed  into  the  country  ....  to  repay  many  fold 

the  farmer The  Ohio  drovers  expended  considerable 

money  in  the  country  for  cattle."158  Taking  into  consideration 
the  labor  conditions  in  Illinois  it  is  easy  to  understand  why  the 
"enterprising"  farmers  put  their  capital  into  live  stock  and  why 
Birkbeck  wrote:  "It  is  on  the  boundless  scope  for  rearing  and 
fattening  hogs  and  cattle,  that  the  farmers  place  their  chief  re- 
liance."159 

.  A  second  class  that  Fordham  included  among  the  enterprising 
men  were  the  mechanics.  There  seems  to  have  been  a  great 
scarcity  of  skilled  laborers,  and  many  towns  made  strenuous 
efforts  to  attract  them.  In  most  advertisements  of  town  lots, 
for  instance,  lower  rates  were  offered  to  "skilled  mechanics."' 
During  the  early  part  of  1818,  the  following  advertisement  ap- 
peared repeatedly  in  the  Intelligencer:100 

Notice 
TO  MECHANICS  &  FARMERS 

MECHANICS  of  every  description  are  much  wanted  at 
Edwardsville :  more  particularly  the  following,  a  Tay- 

"*Reynolds,  My  Own  Times,  176. 
1MBirkbeck,  Letters  from  Illinois,  68. 
^Intelligencer,  March  18,  1818. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  143 

lor,  Shoemaker,  Waggon  Maker,  Hatter,  Saddler, 
Tanner  and  Currier.  From  jour  to  six  Carpenters  and 
Joiners,  and  from  four  to  six  ax-men,  and  from  six 
to  eight  farming  labourers,  will  find  immediate  employ- 
ment and  good  wages;  for  further  particulars  enquire 
of  col.  Benjamin  Stephenson  and  Doctor  Jos.  Bowers, 
at  Edwardsville,  or  James  Mason  at  St.  Louis. 

Edwardsville  is  the  seat  of  justice  for  Madison 
county,  Illinois  territory,  and  has  the  land-office  estab- 
lished there  for  the  district  of  Edwardsville;  and  is 
surrounded  on  three  sides  by  the  Goshen  settlement, 
which  is  one  of  the  best  settlements  in  the  territory; 
besides  the  adjacent  country  in  every  direction,  is  equal 
in  point  of  fertility  of  soil,  to  any  other  in  the  western 
region. 

March  8 

On  April  22  appeared  for  the  first  time  a  notice  to  bridge 
builders  which  reads  as  follows: 

To  Bridge  Builders. 

A  Man  is  wanted  to  build  a  bridge  over  the  Little 
Wabash  river,  at  Carmi,  Illinois  territory.  The  river, 
when  low,  is  about  130  feet  wide,  one  foot  deep,  bottom 
smooth  rock-banks  about  35  feet  high,  The  water  rises 
to  the  depth  of  32  feet  The  above  mentioned  bridge 
will  be  let  or  contracted  for  on  the  first  Monday  in  May 
next. — As  a  good  bridge  is  more  our  object  than  a 
cheap  one,  a  skilful  bridge  builder  will  meet  with  lib- 
eral encouragement. 

Leonard  White,  ) 

Benja  White,  ) 

Will.  M'Henry,  )   Commissioners. 

W.  Hargrave,  ) 

Lowry  Hay,  ) 

James  Casey,  ) 
Carmi,  April  2 

But,  as  has  already  been  pointed  out,  few  towns  had  actually 
reached  a  stage  of  development  that  would  attract  specialized 
labor.  Fordham  advised  mechanics  to  locate  "always  in  the  most 
settled  parts  of  the  Western  Country,  and  generally  in  the  Slave 
States." 


144  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

However  it  may  have  been  with  mechanics,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  towns  were  beginning  in  1818  to  attract  mer- 
chants. The  character  of  the  stores  can  easily  be  judged  from 
the  advertisements.  The  following  from  the  Intelligencer  of 
January  I  is  characteristic: 

NEW  GOODS 

The  Subscriber  has  just  received  from  New  York 
and  Philadelphia  A  LARGE  AND  HANDSOME  AS- 
SORTMENT OF  GOODS, 

CONSISTING  OF 


Superfine,  Fine  and 
Coarse  Broad 
Cloths,  Casimeres, 
Coatings,  Flannels, 
Hosings, 
Silk  Shawls, 
Cotton  do. 
Handkerchiefs, 


Cambrics 

Fancy  Muslins,  lace 
British  Cottons, 
Linens,  Domestic, 
Stripes,  Plaids  and 
Plains,  Saddles, 
Bridles,  Hats  and 


A  Large  Assortment  of  Ladies  and  Gentlemen's 
SHOES. 

ALSO,  A  GENERAL  ASSORTMENT  OF 

Hardware, 

Which,   with  his   former  stock  he   offers   low   for 
Cash,  or  on  a  short  and  approved  credit. 

He  continues  to   receive   in  exchange   for  Goods, 
Wheat,  Pork,  Butter,  Furs,  Peltries,  &c.  &c. 

EDWARD  COWLES. 
Kaskaskia,  Nov.  5 

Six  of  the  stores  which  advertised  in  the  Intelligencer  were 
located  in  Kaskaskia;  one  of  them,  Thomas  Cox's,  had  goods 
"lately  imported  from  Europe"  besides  those  of  domestic  manu- 
facture. Benjamin  Stephenson  of  Edwardsville  and  the  Rey- 
nolds brothers  of  Goshen  advertised  their  wares  in  the  Intelli- 
gencer; Missouri  merchants  also  thought  it  worth  while  to 
advertise  in  the  Kaskaskia  paper.  From  both  St.  Louis  and  St. 
Genevieve  the  merchants  were  bidding  for  Illinois  trade.  For 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  145 

the  eastern  side  of  the  country  the  advertisements  appeared  in 
the  Illinois  Emigrant  of  Shawneetown.  The  following  is  the 
list  of  goods  that  John  Grant  of  Carmi,  White  county,  presented 
for  sale  at  either  wholesale  or  retail.161 

NEW  STORE, 
Carmi,  White  County,  Illinois. 
The  subscriber  has  opened  a  choice  assortment  of  the 
following  Goods,  which  he  has  selected  with  care  and 
attention  in  Philadelphia  and  Pittsburgh,  and  which 
he  will  sell  on  reasonable  terms,  wholesale  and  retail : 
Domestick  &  imported  superfine  Cloths  and 

Cassimeres, 

Sattinets,  Cassinets,  and  Kerseys, 
Pelisse  Cloths,  Lion  Skins  and  Coatings, 
Velveteens  and  vestings, 
Printed  Calicoes, 
Furniture  ditto. 
Domestick    and    imported    Ginghams     and 

Chambrays — plain  and  twilled, 
Bombazets, 

White  and  coloured  Flannels, 
Rose  and  point  Blankets, 
Steam-loom  and  domestick  Shirtings, 
Sheeting  Muslins  and  Bedticks, 
Men's  and  women's  worsted  and  cotton  Hose, 
Men's  and  women's  Gloves, 
Waterloo  Shawls  and  silk  Handkerchiefs, 
Cambrick,  Jaconet  and  book  Muslins, 
Insertion  Trimmings  and  Ribbons, 
Scots  Thread  and  cotton  Balls — white  and 

coloured, 

Mantuas  and  Sevantines, 
India  Muslins, 
Men's,   women's   and   children's   Boots   and 

Shoes, 

Looking-Glasses  and  Jap'd.  Trays, 
Tortoise,  ivory  and  common  Combs, 
Hand  Vices, 

Millsaw  and  handsaw  Files, 
Pitt  and  cross-cut  Saws, 
German  steel  Handsaws, 

^Illinois  Emigrant,  January  23,  1819. 


146  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

Thumb  Latches,  Hinges  and  Locks, 

Spades,  Shovels,  Hoes,  Axes,  Frying-pans,  Pots, 

Teakettles,  Dutch  Ovens,  Smoothing-irons,  with  a  great 

variety  of  Cutlery,  Cast,  &  Hollow  Ware, 

GROCERIES— HOLLOW  GLASS  WARE,  of 
Bakewell's  manufacture — Window  Glass, 
School  Books  and  Stationary, 
English  Crowley  Mellinton  Steel, 
Juniatta  Bar-iron, 
Sieves  and  Riddles, 
Grind  Stones  of  the  best  quality. 

JOHN  GRANT. 
Carmi,  Dec.  31,  1818 
N.  B.    A  liberal  allowance  shall  be  made  to 
Storekeepers. 

J.  G. 

From  the  wording  of  the  advertisements,  it  is  evident  that  the 
merchants  were  trying  to  entice  the  farmers  into  town  to  ex- 
change their  produce  for  store  goods.  A  Shawneetown  mer- 
chant182 even  offered  to  give  the  highest  price  in  cash  for  any 
quantity  of  the  following  articles : 


TALLOW, 
CANDLE  COTTON, 
or  SOFT  FLAX,  for 
WICKS, 

VENISON  HAMS, 
BUTTER, 
CHEESE, 
EGGS, 


POTATOES, 

TURNIPS, 

ONIONS, 

PARSNIPS, 

CARROTS, 

HOPPS, 

SAGE, 

TWILLED  BAGS. 


There  could  be  no  trade  until  the  people  were  roused  from  their 
contentment  with  goods  of  home  manufacture;  an  effort  in  this 
direction  was  the  attempt  to  bring  the  market  nearer  to  the 
farmer.  Augusta  held  out  this  lure  to  merchants  to  influence 
their  choice  of  location.163 

THIS  town  is  situate  on  the  east  side  of  Silver 
creek,  Illinois  territory,  where  the  great  roads  cross 
leading  from  Vincennes  and  Shawnoetown  to  St. 

Tllittnie    fiminmtit     Tunnarv   n     tRm 


^Illinois  Emigrant,  January  9, 
^Intelligencer,  May  20,  1818. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  147 

Louis,  Edwardsville  &  Boon's  lick.  It  is  an  interior 
central  point,  distant  from  St.  Louis,  22  miles,  from 
Edwardsville,  12,  from  Belleville,  20,  from  Perry- 
ville  40,  from  Ripley,  25,  and  from  Covington,  30,  sur- 
rounded by  a  fertile  country,  surpassed  by  none  in  the 
west,  and  calculated  to  support  a  crowded  agricultural 
population. 

It  is  most  probably  at  this  time  the  best  populated 
section  of  country  in  the  territory,  and  will  shortly  be 
almost  wholly  under  the  finest  state  of  cultivation.  The 
distance  from  market,  the  strength  and  wealth  of  the 
population,  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  and  the  great  mass 
of  surplus  produce  of  the  farmer,  strongly  require  the 
establishment  of  a  place  for  the  transaction  of  business, 
where  the  industrious  husbandman  can  make  sale  of  the 
rich  harvest  of  his  farm,  and  carry  home  to  his  family 
the  reward  of  his  labor  without  having  to  consume  the 
whole  of  his  profits  in  transporting  to  remote  markets. 
This  place  then  holds  out  strong  inducements  to  the  me- 
chanic, the  merchant,  the  professional  gentleman,  and 
all  the  necessary  branches  of  a  well  organised  society. 

It  is  fair  to  say  that  1818  marks  the  beginnings  of  trade  in  Illi- 
nois. Reynolds  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  "the  factory 
goods,  from  New  England  and  Kentucky,  reached  Illinois  about 
1818,  and  then  looms,  cotton  &c.,  disappeared — spinning  also 
ceased  then."164  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  change  was 
the  result  of  the  great  influx  of  population  at  that  time;  among 
the  new  population  were  many  who  were  accustomed  to  buying 
what  they  needed,  and  furthermore,  they  brought  with  them  the 
money  necessary  for  trade.  The  change  that  was  brought  about 
has  been  depicted  by  Ford  as  follows  :165  "Upon  the  conclusion  of 
the  war  of  1812  the  people  from  the  old  States  began  to  come  in, 
and  settle  in  the  country.  They  brought  some  money  and  prop- 
erty with  them,  and  introduced  some  changes  in  the  customs  and 
modes  of  living.  Before  the  war,  such  a  thing  as  money  was 
scarcely  ever  seen  in  the  country,  the  skins  of  the  deer  and  rac- 
coon supplying  the  place  of  a  circulating  medium.  The  money 
which  was  now  brought  in,  and  which  had  before  been  paid  by 

'"Reynolds,  My  Own  Times,  71. 
1MFord,  History  of  Illinois,  43. 


148  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

the  United  States  to  the  militia  during  the  war,  turned  the  heads 
of  all  the  people,  and  gave  them  new  ideas  and  aspirations;  so 
that  by  1819  the  whole  country  was  in  a  rage  for  speculating  in 
lands  and  town  lots.  The  States  of  Ohio  and  Kentucky,  a  little 
before,  had  each  incorporated  a  batch  of  about  forty  independent 
banks.  The  Illinois  territory  had  incorporated  two  at  home,  one 
at  Edwardsville  and  the  other  at  Shawneetown ;  and  the  territory 
of  Missouri  added  two  more,  at  St.  Louis.  These  banks  made 
money  very  plenty;  emigrants  brought  it  to  the  State  in  great 
abundance.  The  owners  of  it  had  to  use  it  in  some  way ;  and  as 
it  could  not  be  used  in  legitimate  commerce  in  a  State  where  the 
material  for  commerce  did  not  exist,  the  most  of  it  was  used  to 
build  houses  in  towns  which  the  limited  business  of  the  country 
did  not  require,  and  to  purchase  land  which  the  labor  of  the 
country  was  not  sufficient  to  cultivate.  This  was  called  'develop- 
ing the  infant  resources  of  a  new  country.' ' 

The  law  establishing  the  Shawneetown  bank  was  approved 
December  26,  1816,  that  for  the  one  at  Edwardsville  a  year 
later.  Each  was  to  have  a  capital  stock  of  $300,000,  one-third 
subscribed  by  the  legislature,  the  rest  by  individuals.  A  share  in 
the  Shawneetown  bank  was  put  at  $100,  in  the  Edwardsville  at 
$50.  Of  the  $30,000  subscribed  to  the  Edwardsville  bank  as  the 
first  installment,  $22,625  came  from  Kentucky,  $10,000  was 
given  by  one  man,  $1,800  came  from  St.  Louis,  $100  from  New 
York.  Only  the  remaining  $5,475  came  from  within  Illinois. 
The  subscribers  there  were  confined  to  Madison  and  St.  Clair 
counties ;  few  contributed  more  than  $50.  The  bank  opened  for 
business  when  the  first  installment  of  one-tenth  had  been  paid 
in.166  The  following  editorial  in  the  Intelligencer  for  January  I, 
1817,  reflects  the  general  enthusiasm  over  the  new  enterprise. 

ILLINOIS  BANK. 

The  bill  establishing  a  Bank  at  Shawnoetown  has  at 
length  received  the  approbation  and  signature  of  the 
governor,  and  has  consequently  become  a  law.  What- 
ever may  be  our  opinion  as  to  the  ultimate  effects  that 

™ Intelligencer,  January  15,  1817;  House  Journal,  I  general  assembly,  2  ses- 
sion. 105,  106. 


JOHN  MARSHALL,  BANKER  AT  SHAWNEETOWN 

[From  original  in  Chicago  Historical  Society 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  149 

are  likely  to  result  from  the  extensive  banking  system 
adopted  in  the  United  States,  we  are  inclined  to  think, 
that  much  advantage  will  result  from  this  particular  in- 
stitution to  our  infant  territory.  The  great  scarcity  of 
the  precious  metals  that  prevails,  has  rendered  it  neces- 
sary that  some  substituted  circulating  medium  should  be 
furnished ;  and  bank  paper  is  certainly  the  most  conven- 
ient. But  the  remoteness  of  our  situation,  from  the 
banks  in  the  respective  states  has  hither  to  rendered  its 
circulation  in  many  instances  tardy  and  doubtful — and 
indeed  the  many  frauds,  and  deceptions,  that  have  been 
practiced  in  the  country,  by  the  circulation  of  spurious 
paper,  purporting  to  be  on  banks  at  a  distance,  has  very 
justly  awakened  the  suspicion  of  those,  to  whom  such 
paper  was  offered,  and  consequently  cramped  its  circula- 
tion. But  to  the  circulation  of  our  own,  there  will  not 
be  the  same  objection — the  people  in  general  will  soon 
become  acquainted  with  it,  and  any  attempts  at  fraud  or 
imposition,  will  be  much  sooner  detected.  But  at  Shaw- 
noetown,  a  place  of  growing  prospects  characterized  by 
its  commercial  activity,  &  the  eligibility  of  its  situation, 
more  essentially  required  a  bank,  than  we  ourselves,  as 
well  as  many  others,  at  first  supposed  The  fertility  of 
the  neighboring  country  on  both  sides  of  the  Ohio  river, 
and  on  the  Wabash,  gives  rise  to  a  great  redundancy  of 
produce  of  every  description,  and  Shawnoetown  is  the 
only  place  of  deposit  for  a  considerable  distance  around. 
It  is  from  that  place  that  such  produce  must  embark,  for 
home  as  well  as  foreign  markets.  And  it  is  there  where 
the  industrious  farmer,  will  in  future  receive  the  price 
of  his  produce.  Those  engaged  in  commercial  employ- 
ments will  meet  at  that  place,  the  rich  crops  of  the  yeo- 
manry of  the  country,  ready  to  be  wafted  to  the  best 
markets,  and  the  facilities  of  the  bank,  will  enable  them 
to  procure  on  reasonable  terms,  the  means  of  paying  for 
their  cargoes  in  advance.  And  thus  the  farmer,  as  well 
as  the  merchant,  will  experience  at  once  the  benefits  of 
the  bank. 

But  the  advantages  of  the  bank  will  be  more  happily 
felt  at  the  present  time  by  those  who  are  purchasing 
lands  from  the  United  States;  many  forfeitures  of  in- 
stalments already  paid  will  no  doubt  be  saved  by  the 
means  derivable  from  the  banks  of  securing  the  funds 


ISO  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

necessary  to  prevent  such  forfeitures.    And  if  even  for- 
feitures should  not  be  prevented,  it  will  be  the  means  of 
preventing  great  individual  sacrifices,  such  as  would  re- 
sult from  a  necessity  of  selling  lands  already  entered  to 
secure  payment.    And  this  advantage  need  not  be  con- 
firmed to  the  neighborhood  of  Shawnoetown,  but  may 
be  co-extensive  with  the  territory.    There  is  also  an  ex- 
tensive and  fertile  country  in  Kentucky,  that  is  contig- 
ious  [sic]  to  Shawnoetown — and  from  it  we  may  expect 
to  derive  a  neighborly  advantage — it  will  be  the  means 
of  drawing  its  produce  in  a  great  degree  to  that  place  as 
the  point  of  delivery;  indeed,  as  is  the  case  in  every  new 
country  where  the  resources  of  the  country  are  not  de- 
veloped, new  advantages  will  be  hourly  unfolding  them- 
selves.   New  inducements  to  industry  will  be  furnished 
and    individual    wealth    which    always    forms    public 
wealth,  will  characterize  the  whole  neighboring  country. 
The  salt  trade  will  also  be  an  additional  source  of  wealth 
to  the  stockholders ;  many  thousand  bushels  of  salt  are 
annually  taken  from  the  neighboring  salines.    And  the 
bank  will  be  rendered  an  easy  means  of  facilitating  that 
commerce.    The  local  situation  of  the  bank  being  thus 
eligible,  and  the  prospects  of  its  utility  being  thus  flat- 
tering, we  have  no  doubt  but  the  whole  of  the  stock  sub- 
ject to  individual   subscription,   will  be   immediately 
taken ;  and  as  the  territory  will  not  likely  in  any  short 
time  be  in  a  situation  to  subscribe,  neither  for  the  whole 
nor  any  part  of  the  shares  reserved  to  itself — if  the 
commercial  growth  of  that  place,  and  the  demands  of 
the  country  should  justify  it,  we  see  no  reason  why  the 
legislature  might  not  pass  some  act  to  authorize  ap- 
propriations of  the  public  shares,  by  individuals  until 
the  territory  can  raise  the  stock  for  its  own  use. 

The  craze  for  wildcat  banking  did  not  come  until  after  Illi- 
nois became  a  state.  Into  a  consideration  of  the  conditions  in 
Illinois  attending  that  catastrophe  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  enter. 
But  the  discussion  over  the  establishment  of  a  state  bank  at  the 
second  session  of  the  first  legislature  produced  an  editorial  bear- 
ing so  directly  on  the  economic  conditions  as  to  merit  insertion 
here.  After  announcing  the  passage  of  the  bill  by  both  houses, 
the  editor  of  the  Illinois  Emigrant  clipped  from  the  Illinois  In- 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  151 

telligencer  the  following  words  of  conditional  approbation  and 
then  added  his  own  scathing  comment. 

An  act  incorporating  A  STATE  BANK,  so  much  desired 
by  the  people,  has  been  passed  by  both  branches  of  the 
General  Assembly  upon  the  principles  heretofore  pub- 
lished in  a  former  number,  except  the  duration  of  the 
charter — which  is  reduced  from  fifty  to  twenty-five 
years.  If  a  board  of  directors,  known  to  be  friendly 
to  the  institution  shall  be  elected,  we  again  say,  as  we 
have  before  said,  that  we  believe  much  publick  good  will 
result  from  it.  We  believe  the  people  will  have  great 
reason  (should  that  be  the  case)  to  congratulate  them- 
selves on  the  occasion,  and  to  welcome  home  their  rep- 
resentatives with  smiles  of  approbation.  But  should 
the  management  of  the  institution  be  confided  to  a  di- 
rectory unfriendly  to  its  prosperity,  the  salutary  exer- 
tions of  the  Legislature  will  have  been  of  no  avail.  It 
will  indeed  be  creating  a  light,  and  then  putting  it  un- 
der a  bushel,  (ib.  [Illinois  Intelligencer] ) 


Thus  we  see,  that  while  the  legislatures  of  almost  every 
other  state  in  the  Union  are  taking  measures  to  repress 
that  species  of  swindling,  known  by  the  term  banking, 
the  general  assembly  of  Illinois,  (we  dare  say  from  the 
most  considerate,  pure  and  patriotick  motives}  are  cre- 
ating a  state  Bank,  with  ten  branches  and  a  capital  of 
three  millions  of  dollars !  It  would  be  curious  to  know, 
what  part  of  this  stock  is  to  be  subscribed  by  the  state, 
and  out  of  what  other  bank  it  intends  to  borrow  money 
to  make  the  instalments  ?  For  is  it  not  known  that  our 
treasury  is  bankrupt,  and  that,  as  a  state,  we  have  not 
the  fee-simple  of  one  inch  of  territory  upon  the  globe — 
that  our  population  (including  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren) does  not  exceed,  by  an  unit,  40,000  souls — that 
perhaps  one  seventh  part  of  this  population  may  be  men, 
above  21  years  of  age — and  that,  probably,  one  fourth 
part  of  this  small  number,  may  have  paid  for  their  pos- 
sessions, and  are  able  to  purchase  stock,  tho'  not  to  a 
great  amount!  What  business,  then,  have  we,  (who, 
in  addition  to  all,  are  not  a  commercial  people, 
and  whose  great  commercial  towns,  Cairo  and  Amer- 
ica, to  use  a  quaint  phrase,  cannot  be  seen  for  the 
trees)  with  banks?  Because  the  constitution  has  given 
the  legislature  power  to  create  a  state  bank,  does  it  follow 


152  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

that  it  must  be  done  now?  that  no  regard  should  be  paid 
to  the  expediency  of  the  thing? — "So  much  desired  by 
the  people!"  Tis  false !  the  people  never  desired  it — it  is 
a  gross  insult  to  the  good  sense  of  the  community — the 
people  know  that  some  citizens  of  Kaskaskia,  and  none 
else,  desired  it — and  that  there  was  not  virtue  enough  in 
their  representatives  to  preserve  the  state  from  disgrace, 
and  themselves  from  the  imputation  of  trifling  with  their 
powers  and  the  wishes  of  the  people.  But,  it  is  asked 
will  the  governour  and  counsel  give  their  sanction  to  this 
bill?  For  our  parts,  we  think  they  will  not — we  cannot 
believe  that  Mr.  Bond  will  so  far  forget  the  sacred  duty 
he  owes  the  good  people  of  this  state,  as  to  assign  them 
over  to  the  management  of  a  set  of  bank  directors ;  as  in 
fact  he  will,  if  this  bank  go  into  operation  with  his  consent 
— So  fraught  is  banking  with  every  evil  consequence — so 
truly  is  it  "the  offspring  of  ignorance,  chicanery,  and  a 
spirit  of  speculation."167 

"The  spirit  of  speculation"  was  pushing  Illinois  beyond  the 
point  of  discretion,  not  only  in  its  banking  ventures,  but  more 
particularly  in  its  attempts  to  stimulate  the  growth  of  towns. 
Speculation  in  land  was  the  only  outlet  for  any  considerable 
amount  of  capital.  But  it  was  more  than  that — it  was  prac- 
tically the  only  activity  in  which  men  could  give  free  scope  to 
their  business  ability,  could  take  the  chances  of  success  or  failure 
which  make  the  game  worth  playing.  The  limitations  in  farm- 
ing and  trade  have  been  pointed  out.  The  development  of  the 
lead  mines  in  the  north  had  not  begun.  The  manufacture  of  salt, 
which  was  conducted  on  a  larger  scale  than  any  other  industry 
in  the  territory,  was  owned  by  the  United  States.  Milling  was 
necessarily  on  a  small  scale,  for  grain  was  not  raised  for  export. 
There  was  very  little  manufacturing  outside  the  homes.168  No 
one's  business  was  on  a  large  enough  scale  to  occupy  his  whole 
time,  and  consequently  land  speculation  was  universally  in- 
dulged in. 

Among  the  leaders  in  land  speculation  in  Illinois  were  to  be 

^"Illinois  Emigrant,  March  20,  1819. 

168In  November,  1817,  Birkbeck  wrote  to  Fearon :  "The  manufactures 
you  mention  may  hereafter  be  eligible ;  cotton,  woollen,  linen,  stockings,  &c., 
Certainly  not  at  present."  Letters  from  Illinois,  32.  In  1818,  Jesse  B. 
Thomas  advertised  that  by  June  he  would  have  in  operation  two  carding 
machines;  this  was  the  first  establishment  of  its  kind  in  Illinois.  Intelli- 
gencer, January  i,  June  3,  1818. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  153 

found  all  the  principal  politicians.  In  a  previous  chapter  atten- 
tion was  called  to  Governor  Ninian  Edwards'  activities  at  Ed- 
wardsville.  According  to  an  early  settler  at  Upper  Alton,  he 
held  land  there  also.  There  was  scarcely  an  issue  of  the  Intel- 
ligencer which  did  not  contain  an  advertisement  signed  by  him. 
Under  date  of  January  13,  1818,  he  ran  the  following  notice: 

NOTICE. 

I  SHALL  continue  to  sell  LOTS  in  Belville  (the  seat  of 
justice  for  St.  Clair  county)  at  $60  a  lot,  until  the  1st 
January  next,  after  which  time,  I  do  not  intend  to  take 
less  than  $100  for  any  lot,  unless  it  should  be  to  ac- 
commodate some  respectable  mechanck  [sic]  who  may 
be  desirous  of  settling  in  that  village. 

NINIAN  EDWARDS. 

Kaskaskia,  Dec.  8,  1127,  [sic] 

A  little  later  this  notice  appeared: 

Notice. 

I  WILL  sell  upon  liberal  terms,  ONE  HUNDRED 
ACRES  OF  LAND,  including  a  very  valuable  mill  seat 
on  Mary's  river,  ten  miles  below  this,  place  and  about 
three  miles  from  the  Mississippi. 

The  proximity  of  this  situation  to  a  great  extent  of 
fertile  country,  already,  much  improved,  and  rapidly 
improving  its  being  surrounded  with  a  great  abundance 
of  poplar  and  other  timber  suitable  for  making  plank, 
the  facility  of  transporting  grain  and  timber  to  it — and 
a  practicable  and  safe  navigation  to  and  from  it — all 
combine  to  render  it  a  most  eligible  seat  for  water 
works  of  any  kind.  A  complete  dam  has  been  recently 
erected  that  has  withstood  all  the  late  floods,  and  a  very 
inconsiderable  sum  would  be  sufficient  to  put  a  saw  mill 
into  operation  within  a  short  time,  that  would  most 
probably  yield  a  profit  of  two  thousand  dollars  a  year. 

If  1  should  not  sell  shortly,  I  shall  wish  to  employ 
workmen  to  build  me  both  a  sawmill  and  merchant  mill. 

I  have  also  for  sale,  several  HORSES  and  MULES. 

NINIAN  EDWARDS. 
Kaskaskia,  Dec.  20. 


154  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

While  this  notice  was  still  running,  Edwards  began  to  adver- 
tise an  addition  to  Kaskaskia  as  follows : 

Notice. 

is  hereby  given,  that  I  shall  make  application  to  the 
circuit  court  for  Randolph  county,  at  its  next  August 
term,  for  an  order  to  add  to  the  village  of  Kas- 
kaskia, a  tract  of  land  adjoining  said  villiage  [sic],  con- 
taining thirty  four  acres  and  three  quarters ;  which  was 
conveyed  by  John  Edgar  to  Benjamin  Stephenson,  and 
by  said  Stephenson  to  myself,  as  by  reference  to  both 
deeds  now  on  record,  will  more  fully  appear. 

Ninian  Edwards. 
March  30,  1818 

That  he  had  land  in  the  northern  settlements  as  well  is  shown 
from  this  advertisement : 

I  HAVE  for  Sale  several  valuable  Tracts  of  Land  near 
Belleville,  and  in  other  parts  of  Saint  Clair  county — 
Two  quarter  sections  on  Cahokia  creek,  in  the  vicinity 
of  Edwardsville — and  three  quarter  sections  on  Shoal 
creek,  near  Mr.  Swearingen's ;  all  of  which,  Mr. 
Thomas  Estes  of  St.  Louis,  is  fully  empowered  to  sell. 

Ninian  Edwards.™9 
March  30,  1818 

Not  far  behind  Edwards  in  land  speculation  were  his  political 
coworkers  Stephenson  and  Cook.  The  former  has  already  been 
spoken  of;  his  interest  centered  in  Edwardsville,  where  he  was 
receiver  of  the  land  office  as  well  as  merchant  and  president  of 
the  bank.  Cook  advertised  land  in  localities  as  far  apart  as 
Madison  and  Edwards  counties.  To  him,  as  to  most  other  law- 
yers, land  speculation  held  out  peculiar  charms.  Most  of  the 
average  lawyer's  work  was  in  connection  with  disputed  claims  to 
land;  it  was  an  easy  and  natural  step  for  the  lawyer  who  had 
capital  to  buy  up  claims  which  came  under  his  notice  and  ad- 
vance them  for  himself  instead  of  for  a  client.  The  following 
letter  from  John  Reynolds  to  Ninian  Edwards  gives  a  good 
picture  of  a  lawyer's  interest  in  land  claims.170 

^Intelligencer,  January  I,  April  15,  April  29,  1818. 

"•Reynolds  to  Edwards,  December  4,  1818,  in  Chicago  Historical  Society 
manuscripts,  50:294. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  155 

Cahokia  4th  Decemb  1818 
Dear  Sir 

Permit  me  to  trouble  you  on  my  private  business ;  and 
the  greatest  excuse  I  have  to  say  in  my  favor  is:  that 
my  claims  of  Government  are  just,  and  of  course, 
should  you  befriend  me  therein;  you  will  have  the  sen- 
sations of  a  person  who  knows  he  has  done  right. 

In  the  first  place;  Mr  Pope  concluded  the  affair  of 
the  Piasa  Land.  I  have  executed  to  him  an  equal  fifth 
of  the  claim;  and  has  made  the  same  contract  in  writ- 
ing to  you.  Mr.  Pope  is  to  endeavor  to  send  the  Pat- 
ent Certificate  to  the  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land 
office  but  of  this,  no  doubt,  he  will  let  you  know  in  a 
more  ample  manner  than  I  can  do :  so  you  can  nourish 
the  Claim  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Meigs.  as  to  the  value 
of  the  Land  it  is  immense.  Major  Hunter  of  St.  Louis 
(so  reports  say)  gave  Meachan  $10.000  for  half  of  one 
quarter  sec.  of  the  Denegan  Entry;  that  Bates  had. 
this  is  to  shew,  that  this  Piasa  Claim  will  justify  great 

industry  to  gain  it 

I  have  this  day  bo't  a  claim  on  the  United  States  for 
100  Acres  of  Land  from  a  certain  Jean  Baptiste  Ladu- 
cier  who  was  Subject  to  militia  duty  in  the  Illinois 
Country  on  the  ist  Aug.t  1790  but  neglected  to  claim 
and  prove  it  before  the  board  of  Commissioners  in 
proper  time,  he  had  it  proved  by  Mr.  Arundale  and 
others  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Kaskaskia  Register  and 
Receiver  and  they  reported  to  the  Congress  at  the  last 
session  to  the  same  effect,  there  is  no  doubt ;  this  man 
was  and  is  entitled  to  a  hundred  Acres  from  the  Act  of 
Congress.  The  proof  were  so  late  giting  [sic]  before 
the  Land  Committee  last  term ;  that  there  was  no  report 
made.  Joseph  A.  Baird  and  myself  bo't  and  paid  for 
three  hundred  Acres  of  Land  in  the  same  situation. 
When  we  bo't ;  we  thought  his  Donation  was  confirmed 
to  him ;  but  on  examination,  it  was  not.  this  right  was 
proved  by  the  most  of  the  old  people  of  our  Village, 
this  went  on  with  the  Claim  of  Laducier — this  person, 
whose  name  is  Jacques  Miotte,  had  a  militia  right  of 
loo  Acres  confirmed  to  him;  there  then  remains  to  him 
300  to  make  his  Donation  of  400.  where  the  proof  of 
these  two  Claims  have  lain  since  last  Congress,  I  know 
not.  and  I  suppose  it  requires  some  friendly  hand  to 
put  it  operation  [sic]  again. — Some  years  past,  there 


156  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

were  given  by  Congress  Claims  to  Land  in  the  same  sit- 
uation reported  favorably  on  by  the  Kaskaskia  Register 
and  Receiver.  I  see  no  reason,  why  Congress  will  not 
extend  its  favors  in  similar  cases,  they  are  just;  If  you 
see  the  host  of  testimony,  you  will  say,  they  are  just — 
even  should  "Doctor"  "Doubty"  himself  be  in  Congress ; 
he  would  not  doubt.  I  bo't  a  soldier's  right  of  160  Acres 
of  Land  his  name  is  Enoch  Jones  and  got  his  discharge 
from  Kennedy  commanding  there  at  "PASS  CHRIS- 
TIONNE"  below  New  Orleans,  this  Discharge  was  sent 
too  late  to  Mr.  Pope  last  year.  I  wrote  Mr.  Pope  how  I 
should  git  his  old  letters ;  one  of  which  contained  Jone's 
Discharge,  and  to  let  you  know ;  I  wrote  our  Represen- 
tative McLean  to  manage  this  affair,  If  you  or  he  could 
git  the  Discharge. — 

I  have  with  Major  Whiteside  a  pre  emption  right  on 
the  Mississippi  out  of  the  tract  reserved  for  preemp- 
tions, yet  I  believe  the  first  act  of  congress  meant  to 
embrace  all  settlers  in  the  Territory :  but  Col.  Stephen- 
son  had  instructions  to  the  Contrary,  there  were  but  a 
few  out  of  the  survey,  and  in  good  conscience  are  as 
much  entitled  to  this  previliage  [sic]  as  other  settlers, 
when  any  of  them  first  settled  there  were  no  surveys 
made.  I  will  If  you  please  send  this  Claim  with  the 
proof  to  support  it  by  the  next  mail  to  you.  It  is  of 
considerable  magnitude  to  me.  you  can,  If  you  please, 
as  with  the  above  Claims,  present  it  before  the  proper 
tribunal  for  Justice.  I  want  no  more.  I  fear  by  this 
time  you  are  much  tired  with  me  and  my  claims  but 
treat  them  and  me  as  your  feelings  and  Judgement  may 
dictate  and  I  shall  be  satisfied.  I  will  write  the  other 
members  on  the  above.  I  was  lately  at  Ed  wards  ville 
when  I  understood  your  family  were  well,  no  news. 
Pope  is  Register. 

May  God  preserve  you  and 
family  for  ever  and  longer. 

John  Reynolds. 
The  Honorable  N.  Edwards.) 

So  generally  was  this  combination  of  law  and  land  specula- 
tion understood  that  from  an  Albany  lawyer  Kane  received  the 
following  query:  "Can  an  attorney  expect  to  succeed  [in  Illi- 
nois] without  Some  capital  to  embark  in  Speculations,  and  what 
is  the  Smallest  Sum  which  will  be  requisite?  ....  I  have 


THE  ECONOMIC  SITUATION  157 

....  from  i  to  2000  dollars.  Will  such  funds  justify  the 
adventure?"171  It  was  inevitable  that  the  widespread  specula- 
tion in  land  should  make  itself  felt  in  politics.  The  entrepreneurs 
who  had  placed  the  heaviest  stakes  in  the  new  territory  were 
naturally  the  most  keenly  interested  in  its  political  development; 
few  of  them  had  any  scruples  against  using  every  political 
weapon  available  for  the  furtherance  of  their  undertakings.  The 
territorial  laws  on  labor  and  on  the  opening  up  of  the  country 
bear  unmistakable  evidence  of  the  work  of  interested  individuals ; 
the  Cairo  scheme  is  not  an  unfair  example  of  the  kind  of  legis- 
lation that  was  passed.  Undoubtedly  the  legislature  merited  the 
caricature  which  appeared  in  the  Intelligencer  for  September  9, 
1818.  The  writer,  "Nemo,"  tells  of  a  marvelous  vision. 

After  passing  Cape  ne  plus  ultra,  on  the  east,  I  saw  in 
lat.  39°  N.  and  Long.  8°  W.  in  the  open  Prairie,  above 
the  head  of  the  Little  Wabash  in  the  Illinois  territory, 
another  GREAT  SEA  SERPENT.  As  these  monsters  are 
now  filling  the  world  with  wonder,  I  was  determined  to 
ascertain  the  size,  nature,  and  if  possible,  to  what  tribe 
of  animals  this  monster  belonged.  I  therefore,  hauled 
to  my  ship  for  that  purpose,  and  I  found  this  serpent  to 
be  exactly  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  .poles  in  length ; 
and  in  thickness,  different,  as  seemed  to  be  necessary 
for  the  ends  of  creating  that  animal.  On  one  part  of 
the  back  of  this  monster,  there  was  a  territorial  legisla- 
ture in  full  session — at  a  small  distance  from  the  legis- 
lature, there  was  for  the  governor  an  house  made  very 
strong  with  absolute  vetos.  This  legislature  then,  was 
discussing,  whether  nature  had  designed  such  and  such 
rivers  to  be  navigable  or  not. 

1  saw  another  place  of  bustle  and  business  on  this 
sea  serpent,  bearing  from  the  legislature  N.  E.  about 
one  hundred  poles.  I  made  easy  sale  towards  this  place, 
and  discovered  its  inhabitants  to  be  very  short  men, 
with  knocked  knees,  and  crossed-eyes,  fabricating  new 
cities.  I  could  distinctly  perceive  the  stocks,  where 
were  built  the  famous  cities  of  "Cairo,"  city  of  "Amer- 
ica," city  of  "Illinois,"  "Covington,"  "St.  Mary,"  and 
many  others;  these  creators  of  cities,  were  all  stamped 
on  the  forehead  with  the  word  "moneyism." 

"'January  n,  1819,  in  Chicago  Historical  Society  manuscripts,  52:179. 


158  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

On  a  sudden,  I  saw  this  huge  being  in  a  great  agita- 
tion of  body,  and  on  sailing  to  the  S.  W.  towards  the 
head  of  this  serpent,  I  could  discover  very  piainly  [sic] , 
that  this  monster  was  swallowing,  and  thereby  exter- 
minating the  several  banks  of  the  Illinois  Territory. 
This  appeared  to  be  a  fatal  day  on  banks.  The  bank  at 
EDWARDSVILLE,  the  Kaskaskia  bank,  and  that  of  Cairo, 
and  of  the  Little  Wabash  Company,  were  utterly  anni- 
hilated with  all  the  others  of  the  above  territory.  This 
extermination  of  banks  was  not  a  difficult  matter,  as  the 
people  of  the  Illinois  had  learnt  by  experience,  that 
banks  without  any  capital,  created  for  private  specula- 
tion, were  injurious  to  the  public.  After  the  serpent 
finished  this  necessary  work,  it  changed  its  course  to  the 
S.  E.  and  made  great  head  away  for  the  Floridas,  to  aid 
general  Jackson  in  conquering  those  Spanish  provinces 
in  time  of  peace.  This  serpent  had  a  head  of  a  great 
size,  and  when  its  mouth  was  open,  it  appeared  within 
a  fiery  furnace.  NEMO. 

Dated  on  board  the  ship 

Prairie,  28  Aug.   1818. 


CHAPTER  VI 

SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

On  each  of  the  successive  American 
frontiers,   pioneer   life   has   advanced 
HANDMADE  SPECTACLE  CASE     b     th  stages— first  a  relapse  to 

[Original  owned  by  W.  Wilk-         * 

inson,  Roodhouse]  primitive  conditions,   followed  by  the 

gradual  development  of  a  more  complex  civilization.  Illinois  was 
no  exception  to  the  rule.  Even  the  pioneer  who  came  to  the  Illi- 
nois wilderness  from  a  region  only  recently  advanced  out  of  the 
frontier  stage  encountered  inconveniences  and  privations;  the 
immigrant  from  New  England  or  from  across  the  water  must 
have  found  this  adjustment  to  the  new  conditions  very  difficult. 
Fortunately,  however,  a  spirit  of  hospitality  and  neighborliness 
usually  accompanied  the  early  settlers  and  helped  them  to  over- 
come the  difficulties.  "When  a  new-comer,  arrived  in  the  coun- 
try," wrote  a  man  who  came  to  Illinois  in  1817,  "the  settlers, 
without  distinction  or  ceremony,  went  at  once  to  pay  him  a  visit, 
whom  they  usually  found  in  a  tent  or  camp.  The  warmest  senti- 
ments of  friendship  and  good-will  were  interchanged,  the  old 
settlers  assuring  their  new  neighbor,  that  every  thing  they  pos- 
sessed, in  the  way  of  tools,  teams,  wagons,  provisions,  and  their 
own  personal  services,  were  entirely  at  his  command.  Hence,  in 
a  few  days,  all  hands,  as  the  phrase  then  was,  turned  out,  and  built 
the  new-comer  a  house,  cut  and  split  his  rails,  hauled  them  out, 
put  them  up  in  fence  around  the  land  he  wished  to  cultivate,  and 
then  his  land  was  broken  up  for  him  ready  for  the  seed.  Thus,  in 
the  space  of  a  few  days,  the  new-comer  was  in  a  comfortable  con- 
dition, well  acquainted,  and  upon  the  best  terms  of  friendship, 
with  the  whole  neighborhood.  And  to  conclude  these  friendly 
attentions  to  the  new-comer,  a  most  joyous  and  convivial  occasion 

(1S9) 


160  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

was  enjoyed,  when  the  younger  portion  of  the  company  would 
trip  the  light,  fantastic  toe,  over  some  rough  puncheon  floor. 
Thus  would  be  formed  the  most  warm  and  enduring  friendships 
— such  as  no  ordinary  circumstances  could  disturb."172 

The  spirit  of  cooperation  did  not  disappear  once  the  new- 
comer was  established.  Whenever  a  task  was  to  be  performed 
which  required  many  hands,  the  neighbors  would  gather  from 
all  directions.  Most  of  the  social  gatherings  in  the  country  "had 
their  origin  in  utility.  Apple  parings,  quiltings,  corn  huskings 
and  barn  raisings,  and  often  there  was  a  combination  of  these 
entertainments,  a  barn  raising,  or  a  corn  husking  would  be  held, 
and  at  the  same  time  and  place  there  would  be  a  quilting  party, 
and  the  women  guests  would  help  to  cook  and  serve  the  dinner 
for  the  men  who  were  doing  the  rougher  work ;  and  at  night  the 
young  people  stayed  to  dance,  the  more  opulent  ladies  going 
and  coming  on  their  own  horses  with  habits  and  side  saddles. 
The  less  fortunate  (or  were  they  less  fortunate?)  riding  behind 
their  husbands,  brothers  or  sweet-hearts  on  the  same  horse. 
Even  when  neighbors  went  visiting  they  carried  their  knitting 
or  sewing — 'calling'  in  its  present  sense,  there  was  not."178 

But  though  the  frontier  men  and  women  managed  to  com- 
bine some  pleasure  with  their  work,  it  was  at  best  a  hard  life 
that  they  led.  "There  are  in  England,"  wrote  Fordham,  "com- 
forts, nay,  sources  of  happiness,  which  will  for  ages  be  denied 
to  these  half  savage  countries,  good  houses,  good  roads,  a  mild 
and  healthy  climate,  healthy,  because  the  country  is  old,  society, 
the  arts  of  life  carried  almost  to  perfection,  and  Laws  well 
administered."  There  is  abundant  testimony  to  the  prevalence 
of  disease,  especially  among  the  newcomers,  who  had  not  be- 
come acclimated.  In  February,  1819,  Gershom  Flagg  wrote 
from  Edwardsville :  "The  principal  objection  I  have  to  this 
Country  is  its  unhealthiness  the  months  of  Aug.  &  Sept.  are 
generally  very  Sickly.  I  was  taken  sick  with  the  feever  &  ague 
the  15  Sept.  which  lasted  me  nearly  two  months.  I  shall  try  it 
one  season  more  and  if  I  do  not  have  my  health  better  than  I 

^Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  2:327-328. 

"Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1904,  p.  510. 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  161 

have  the  season  past  I  shall  sell  my  property  and  leave  the 
Country."174 

Flower  gives  a  more  detailed  description  of  his  encounter 
with  this  disease:  "The  summer  had  been  very  hot  and  latterly 
wet.  Thunder  showers  of  daily  occurrence  sent  mosquitoes  in 
swarms.  My  cabin,  recently  built,  of  course,  of  green  logs,  un- 
furnished, with  rank  vegetation  growing  all  around  it  and  up 
to  its  very  sides,  was  in  its  situation  and  in  itself  a  sufficient 


HANDMADE  BABY  CRADLE 

[Original  owned  by  W.  O.  Converse,  Springfield] 

cause  of  disease.  My  shepherd  and  his  family  came,  bringing 
a  few  choice  sheep  and  an  English  high-bred  cow.  His  whole 
family,  in  a  few  days,  all  fell  sick,  lying  in  a  small  cabin  just 
built  about  a  hundred  yards  from  my  own.'  Mr.  White,  car- 
penter, from  London,  wife,  and  two  children,  occupied  a  two- 
horse  wagon  and  a  soldier's  tent.  There  was  no  house  for  him ; 
they  all  fell  sick.  My  two  sons  were  speedily  taken  with  fever 
and  ague,  to  us  then  a  new  disease.  Miss  Fordham,  who  shared 
our  cabin,  was  attacked  with  the  same  disease.  My  constitu- 
tion, strong  and  good,  yielding  from  exposure  to  heat  and  rain, 
took  another  form  of  disease.  Boils  and  irritable  sores  broke 
out  on  both  my  legs,  from  knee  to  ankle,  incapacitating  me,  for 
a  time,  from  walking.  Thus  we  were  situated  for  two  or  three 
weeks,  without  the  slightest  assistance  from  any  source,  or  sup- 
plies other  than  from  my  own  wagons,  as  they  slowly  arrived 
from  Shawneetown,  giving  us  sufficient  bedding  with  flour  and 
bacon.  All  the  other  merchandise  and  furniture  did  but  add 
to  our  present  embarrassment,  in  attempts  to  protect  them  from 
the  weather,  and  in  endeavoring  to  dry  what  was  wet. 

"4Ogg,  Fordham 's  Personal  Narrative,  227 ;  Illinois  State  Historical  Society, 
Transactions,  1910,  p.  163-164. 


162  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

"We  were  carried  through  this  period  of  trial  by  the  unremit- 
ting labor  and  self-sacrifice  of  my  wife.  She  alone  prepared 
all  our  food  and  bedding,  and  attended  to  the  wants  of  the  sick 
and  the  suffering  by  night  and  day.  To  all  this  was  added  a 
fatigue  that  a  strong  man  might  have  shrunk  from,  in  bringing 
water  from  that  distant  well.  Sustained  in  her  unremitting 
labors  by  unbounded  devotion  to  her  family,  and  a  high  sense 
of  duty  to  all  within  her  reach,  her  spirit  and  her  power  seemed 
to  rise  above  the  manifold  trials  by  which  she  was  surrounded. 
And  thus  we  were  saved  from  probable  death  or  certain  disper- 
sion. The  incessant  labor  of  the  mother  told  on  the  infant  at 
the  breast;  it  sickened  and  died.  With  returning  health  we 
worked  our  way  unaided  through  our  difficulties." 

As  Flower  indicated,  the  principal  cause  of  ill  health  was  the 
stagnant  water  and  decaying  vegetation.  In  October,  1820,  Flagg 
wrote:  "Several  towns  in  this  state  have  been  very  sickly  this 
season  especially  those  situated  contiguous  to  Rivers  or  mill- 
Ponds.  The  waters  are  very  low  and  in  many  places  covered 
with  a  green  poison  looking  skum.  The  fogs  arising  from  this 
[sic]  stagnated  waters  makes  the  air  very  unwholesome."175  As 
the  country  became  more  thickly  settled,  and  more  land  was 
brought  under  cultivation,  this  condition  was  ameliorated.  Ap- 
parently some  of  the  more  enterprising  people  were  not  content  to 
leave  the  remedy  to  time,  but  proposed  to  take  action  themselves ; 
for  in  November,  1819,  Morris  Birkbeck  "returned  from  a  tour 
through  Illinois,  by  way  of  Kascasky,  where  he  was  chosen 
President  of  the  agricultural  society  of  Illinois,  one  grand  object 
of  which  will  be,  to  rid  the  state  of  stagnant  waters."178 

Various  other  factors  doubtless  contributed  to  the  poor  health 
of  the  people  in  the  early  days.  Fordham  reached  the  conclusion 
that  "there  is,  upon  the  whole,  a  superiority  in  the  Climate  of 
the  western  Country  to  that  of  England ;  though  not  so  great  as 
I  at  first  imagined,  or  as  you  would  expect  from  the  latitude. 
Consumptions  are  almost  unknown  here.  Bilious  fevers  are 
rather  prevalent,  but  not  dangerous  when  early  attended  to. 

""Flower,  English  Settlement,  122-123;  Illinois  State  Historical  Society, 
Transactions,  1910,  p.  166. 

1T'Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels,  11:162. 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  163 

Women  have  not  such  good  health  as  the  men  have;  but  that 
is  to  be  attributed  to  their  mode  of  life, — being  always  in  the 
house,  usually  without  shoes  and  stockings,  and  roasting  them- 
selves over  large  fires. 

"People  are  not  so  long-lived  here  as  in  England,  and  they 
look  old  sooner.  This  I  think  may  be  justly  attributed  to 

Ist-      The  universal  use  of  spirituous  liquors. 

2diy.  The  disregar(i  of  personal  comfort  and  cleanliness, 
exposure  to  bad  air  near  swamps  &c,  and  want  of  good  Clothing. 

3dly-  The  great  stimulus  and  excitement  of  the  mental  pas- 
sions, which  adventurers  and  first  settlers  are,  by  their  situation, 
subject  to. 

4thly-     (Perhaps)  violent  religious  enthusiasm. 

5thly<     In  some  instances,  very  early  marriages."177 

While  the  task  of  hewing  out  and  developing  a  farm  in  the 
wilderness  was  undoubtedly  an  arduous  one,  many  of  the  pio- 
neers were  quite  willing  to  progress  slowly.  In  a  land  where  the 
soil  was  fertile  and  the  woods -full  of  game,  it  was  not  difficult 
to  make  a  bare  living;  and  for  most  of  the  settlers,  this  was 
enough.  Gershom  Flagg  wrote  in  1818:  "The  people  of  This 
Territory  are  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States  &  do  the  least 
work  I  believe  of  any  people  in  the  world."178  This  is  corrobo- 
rated by  Daniel  M.  Parkinson.  "The  surrounding  country,  how- 
ever," he  wrote,  with  reference  to  Madison  county  in  1817, 
"was  quite  sparsely  settled,  and  destitute  of  any  energy  or  enter- 
prise among  the  people ;  their  labors  and  attention  being  chiefly 
confined  to  the  hunting  of  game,  which  then  abounded,  and  till- 
ing a  small  patch  of  corn  for  bread,  relying  on  game  for  the 
remaining  supplies  of  the  table.  The  inhabitants  were  of  the 
most  generous  and  hospitable  character,  and  were  principally 
from  the  southern  States ;  harmony  and  the  utmost  good  feeling 
prevailed  throughout  the  country."179 

Such  descriptions,  apply  particularly  to  the  first  comers;  and 
Flagg  hastens  to  add  that  "these  kind  of  People  as  soon  as  the 

1ITOgg,  Fordham's  Personal  Narrative,  200-201. 

"'Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  IQIO,  p.  162. 

""Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  2:327. 


164  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

settlements  become  thick  Clear  out  and  go  further  into  the  new 
Country."  Even  their  successors,  however,  often  took  their 
farming  operations  very  casually,  and  found  plenty  of  time  to 
devote  to  hunting  and  recreation  of  various  sorts. 

In  the  villages  a  favorite  form  of  diversion  was  the  celebra- 
tion of  anniversaries,  participated  in  by  the  people  of  the  sur- 
rounding country.  Thus  the  Fourth  of  July,  1818,  was  marked 
at  Kaskaskia  by  a  dinner  to  which  all  the  people  were  invited 
and  which  was  followed  by  an  oration  by  one  of  the  local  lawyers. 
At  Edwardsville,  a  year  later,  the  day  was  ushered  in  by  dis- 
charges of  artillery,  while  "the  American  Flag  waved  trium- 
phantly from  the  top  of  a  lofty  liberty  pole."  At  noon  a  proces- 
sion formed  and  marched  through  the  main  streets.  After  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  had  been  read  on  the  public  square, 
dinner  was  served,  followed  by  appropriate  toasts.  The  Masonic 
lodge  at  Kaskaskia  was  accustomed  to  celebrate  the  anniversaries 
of  St.  John  the  Baptist  in  June  and  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist 
in  December,  usually  with  a  dinner  and  an  oration.  The  annual 
inspection  and  review  of  militia  and  the  occasional  elections  and 
court  sessions  at  the  county  seats  also  furnished  occasions  for 
amusements  of  various  sorts.  Horse  racing,  cockfighting,  and 
gambling  were  favorite  diversions,  although  attempts  were  made 
to  suppress  them  by  laws  and  ordinances.  Everybody  played 
cards,  and  to  play  for  money  was  both  fashionable  and  honor- 
able. Another  and  a  somewhat  more  refined  form  of  recreation 
was  the  singing  school.  There  was  a  singing  society  in  Edwards- 
ville in  1819  which  was  called  to  meet  at  the  courthouse  for 
the  purpose  of  organizing  a  singing  school  for  the  coming  winter. 
Three  dozen  of  the  "most  choice  selection  of  Music  Books"  had 
recently  been  received  from  Boston.180 

Facilities  for  education  were  extremely  limited  in  Illinois  at 
the  close  of  the  territorial  period.  A  system  of  public  schools 
was  scarcely  dreamed  of,  and  the  few  private  schools  in  exist- 
ence were  very  rudimentary  in  character.  Although  surveying 
and  bookkeeping  were  taught  in  a  school  near  Belleville  as  early 
as  1806  and  a  Mr.  Sturgess  in  1816  advertised  a  school  at 

^Spectator,  October  30,  1819;  Reynolds,  My  Own  Times,  82-86. 


PRINTING  PRESS  USED  IN  PRINTING  THE  Missouri  Gazette  IN  1819.    THE  SAME 

TYPE  OF  PRESS  WAS  USED  TO  PRINT  THE  Illinois  Intelligencer 

[Original  in  Missouri  Historical  Society,  St.  Louis] 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  165 

Prairie  du  Rocher  where  grammar,  geography,  surveying, 
astronomy,  Greek,  and  Latin  would  be  taught,  instruction  was 
generally  confined  to  the  "three  R's."  John  Mason  Peck,  the 
Baptist  missionary,  and  one  of  the  best  informed  men  on  the 
frontier  in  all  that  pertained  to  matters  of  culture,  after  a  sur- 
vey of  educational  conditions  in  the  neighboring  state  of 
Missouri,  where  the  frontier  life  was  similar  to  that  across  the 
river,  reached  the  conclusion  "that  at  least  one-third  of  the 
schools  were  really  a  public  nuisance,  and  did  the  people  more 
harm  than  good;  another  third  about  balanced  the  account,  by 
doing  about  as  much  harm  as  good,  and  perhaps  one-third  were 
advantageous  to  the  community  in  various  degrees."181 

The  conditions  in  Illinois  were  thus  described :  "During  the 
early  history  of  Illinois,  schools  were  almost  unknown  in 
some  neighborhoods,  and  in  the  most  favored  districts  they 
were  kept  up  solely  by  subscription,  and  only  in  the  winter 
season,  each  subscriber  agreeing  to  pay  for  one  or  more 
scholar,  or  stipulating  to  pay  for  his  children  pro  rata  for  the 
number  of  days  they  should  be  in  attendance.  The  teacher 
usually  drew  up  articles  of  agreement,  which  stipulated 
that  the  school  should  commence  when  a  specified  num- 
ber of  scholars  should  be  subscribed,  at  the  rate  of  $2, 
$2.50,  or  $3  per  scholar  for  the  quarter.  In  these  written 
articles  he  bound  himself  to  teach  spelling,  reading,  writ- 
ing, and  arithmetic,  as  far  as  the  double  rule  of  three,  Occa- 
sionally a  teacher  would  venture  to  include  English  grammar. 
But  in  the  earlier  years  of  my  youth,  I  knew  of  no  teacher  who 
attempted  to  give  instruction  in  grammar  or  geography.  And 
such  branches  as  history,  natural  philosophy,  or  astronomy, 
were  not  thought  of.  Many  parents  were  unwilling  that  their 
children  should  study  arithmetic,  contending  that  it  was  quite 
unnecessary  for  farmers.  And  what  was  the  use  of  grammar 
to  a  person  who  could  talk  so  as  to  be  understood  by  every- 
body? I  studied  English  grammar,  and  all  the  latter  rules  of 
arithmetic,  when  about  twelve  years  old,  without  the  aid  of  a 
teacher,  and  geography  at  a  later  age,  after  I  had  begun  to 
prepare  for  college. 

18IBabcock,  Memoir  of  Peck,  123 ;  Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  38 ;  Reynolds, 
My  Own  Times,  95 ;  Intelligencer,  September  5,  1816. 


166  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

"The  mode  of  conducting  schools  was  peculiar.  All  the  pupils 
studied  their  lessons,  by  spelling  or  reading  aloud  simultaneously, 
while  the  teacher  usually  heard  each  scholar  recite  alone; 
although,  in  the  opening  of  the  school,  a  chapter  of  the  Bible  was 
read  by  the  older  scholars  by  verses,  in  turn,  and  at  the  close 
in  the  evening,  the  whole  school,  except  the  beginners,  stood 
up  and  spelled  words  in  turn,  as  given  out  by  the  master."182 

It  would  naturally  be  expected  that  schools  of  a  somewhat 
better  sort  would  be  found  in  the  capital  of  the  territory,  but 
such  does  not  appear  to  have  been  the  case.  As  late  as  Novem- 
ber, 1816,  the  Intelligencer  published  a  long  editorial  bewailing 
the  lack  of  a  school  in  Kaskaskia,  "a  place  which  must  at  some 
day  be  a  towering  city."  About  a  year  later  one  J.  Cheek  pub- 
lished a  card  "To  the  Patrons  of  Literature"  in  which  he 

INFORMS  the  friends  and  the  guardians  of  erudition 
that  he  has  opened  a  SCHOOL  in  the  town  of  Kaskaskia, 
for  the  instruction  of  youth,  in  the  different  depart- 
ments of  English  literature. — He  will  extend  the  sphere 
of  instruction,  so  as  to  include  the  following  sciences, 
viz.  Reading,  Writing,  Orthography,  Arithmetic,  Eng- 
lish Grammar,  Geography,  History,  Rhetorick,  Compo- 
sition, Elocution,  ect.  He  flatters  himself  that  from 
his  attention  of  the  morals  and  scientifick  avocations  of 
his  pupils,  he  will  share  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  the 
patronage  of  a  judicious  and  descerning  people.183 

A  teacher  who  arrived  in  Kaskaskia  in  1818  appears  to  have 
aspired  to  the  role  of  public  entertainer.  The  paper  of  Decem- 
ber 2.  published  a  notice  in  which  "Mr.  Cross  respectfully 
informs  his  fellow  citizens  of  Kaskaskia,  that  he  will,  this  even- 
ing, ascend  the  Rostrum,  in  the  Representatives'  chamber,  and 
exert  his  best  efforts  for  their  moral  amusement."  In  the  next 
issue  of  the  paper, 

MR.  CROSS  respectfully  informs  the  citizens  of  Kas- 
kaskia, and  its  vicinage,  that  he  intends,  should  suffi- 
cient patronage  be  afforded,  to  open  a  SCHOOL  in  this 
town,  for  the  instruction  of  youth,  in  Orthography, 

"'Patterson,  "Early  Society  in  Southern  Illinois,"  in  Fergus  Historical 
Series,  no.  14:121-122. 

^Intelligencer,  January  i,  1818. 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  167 

Orthoepy,  Reading,  Writing,  English  Grammar,  Arith- 
metic, and  Elocution. 

Scholars  who  shall  have  graduated  in  these  branches 
of  tuition,  will  be  instructed  in  the  rudiments  of  His- 
tory, Geography,  Natural  Philosophy,  and  Mathe- 
matics. 

Mr.  C.  will  endeavor  to  instill  into  the  minds  of  his 
scholars,  the  vital  importance  of  sound  moral  principle, 
and  correct  manners,  which  he  will  elucidate,  by  a  regu- 
lar course  of  lectures,  every  Saturday.  As  soon  as  he 
can  procure  the  necessary  appendages  his  school  will 
be  Lancasterian.  No  advance  payment  will  be  re- 
quired, but  a  punctual  compliance  with  the  terms  of  sub- 
scription, at  the  expiration  of  each  quarter,  is  confi- 
dently calculated  upon. 

Mr.  C.  will,  this  evening,  in  the  Representative  cham- 
ber, give  various  specimens  of  Elocution,  Instructive 
and  amusing,  original  and  selected.  Tickets  to  be  had 
at  Burr  and  Christy's  Hotel,  and  at  this  office.18* 

An  entertaining  side  light  on  the  character  of  the  man  who 
thus  proposed  to  instruct  the  children  of  the  community  and  to 
furnish  "moral  amusement"  for  his  fellow  citizens  may  be 
learned  from  the  opening  paragraphs  of  a  "Masonic  Oration" 
which  he  delivered  a  few  weeks  later  and  which,  printed  in  full 
at  the  request  of  the  committee,  filled  nine  columns  of  the  paper. 

"THAT  the  rostrum  has  been  assigned  to  me  on  this  august 
festival,  excites  feelings  which  language  faulters  to  impart,  and 
I  address  you  with  sensations  too  strong  for  entire  suppression. 
Oh  permit  me,  your  homeless,  healthless  brother,  an  exile  from 
domestic  enjoyment,  to  claim  all  the  indulgence  which  our  sacred 
relationship  affords. 

"With  a  resolution  and  perseverance  which  I  hope  will  win 
for  the  meridian  of  my  life,  the  esteem  and  respect  of  society, 
and  in  obedience  to  my  duty  as  a  Mason,  I  have,  under  the  bless- 
ing of  the  Great  Architect,,  regained  the  narrow,  but  Heavenward 
path  of  temperance.  No  longer  succumbing  to  the  pressure  of 
misfortune  and  far  superior  to  the  blandishments  of  indolence 
and  dissipation  with  which  the  profession  of  arms  and  my  san- 
guine nature  have  seduced  me,  I  returned  towards  Missouri,  of 

"'Intelligencer,  December  9,  1818. 


168 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Used  in  a  machine 
shop  in  St.  Clair 
county  in  1818. 
[Original  owned  by 


which  I  am  a  citizen,  in  the  hope  &  belief  that  domestic  happiness 

would  reward  my  self -conquest,  and  that  a  friendship,  which  had 

proved  as  sincere  and  magnanimous  as 

my  delight  in  looking  at  the  bright  side 

of  human  nature  induced  me  to  believe 

it  would  have  honored  the  Grecian  Pyth- 

yas,  awaited  my  embrace.     You  know, 

brethren,  how  my  dearest  earthly  hopes 

have  been  blasted,  and  how  little  my 

heart  deserved  the  remediless  infliction. 

"I  stand  before  you  with  a  lacerated 
bosom,  endeavoring  to  act  with  that  for- 
titude and  resignation  which  the  prin- 
ciples of  our  order  enjoins.  Believe  me, 
therefore,  that  I  acknowledge  with  grati- 
tude the  influence  of  the  oil  and  wine 
which,  with  the  brethren  of  Columbia,  Virginia,  Kentucky,  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Tennessee  and  Illinois,  you  have  poured  into  my 
wounds;  and,  though  you  have  much  over- rated  my  talents  by 
this  honorable  distinction,  gratitude  to  the  fraternity,  and  my 
ardent  love  of  the  soul-redeeming  science  of  Masonry,  must,  at 
least  for  this  day,  absorb  my  individual  sufferings."185 

These  rudimentary  attempts  at  academic  instruction  were  not 
supplemented  to  any  considerable  extent  by  reading.  There  were 
few  books  among  the  people  of  the  frontier.  A  dozen  years  be- 
fore Illinois  became  a  state,  according  to  Reynolds,  "not  a  man 
in  the  country,  professional,  or  otherwise,  had  any  collection  of 
books,  that  could  acquire  the  name  of  library.  There  were  some 
books  scattered  through  the  country,  but  they  were  not  plenty. 
Although  my  father  was  a  reading  man,  and  possessed  a  strong 
mind,  yet  as  far  as  I  recollect,  he  brought  to  the  country  with 
him  no  books,  except  the  Bible.  Many  of  the  immigrants  acted 
in  the  same  manner  as  to  books."188 

By  1818,  some  of  the  lawyers  possessed  fair  collections  of 
books.  In  that  year,  one  of  the  rooms  of  the  market  house  erected 


^Intelligencer,  January  6,  1819. 
""Reynolds,  My  Own  Times,  93. 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  169 

in  the  English  settlement  of  Albion,  "was  fitted  up  for  the  recep- 
tion of  books,  that  were  given  by  individuals  in  England,  as  a 
nucleus  for  a  public-library,  and  was  used  for  public-meetings, 
and  public- worship."  The  credit  for  the  establishment  of  this 
institution  is  due  to  Richard  Flower,  and  something  of  its  devel- 
opment and  of  the  attitude  of  the  American  frontiersmen  toward 
books  may  be  seen  in  an  extract  from  a  letter  which  Flower 
wrote  in  January,  1820,  to  friends  in  England.187 

"You  would  have  been  much  amused  if  you  had  been  with 
us  a  few  weeks  since,  when  I  had  a  visit  from  Captain  Burke, 
a  sensible  and  intelligent  backwoodsman.  He  paid  me  a  short 
visit,  put  off  his  business  that  he  might  fetch  his  wife,  which 
he  did;  we  thought  we  saw  through  the  plan;  he  returned  with 
her  the  next  day,  and  we  felt  disposed  to  gratify  their  curiosity. 
'There  wife/  said  he,  'did  you  ever  see  such  fixings?'  He  felt 
the  paper,  looked  in  a  mirror  over  our  chimney-piece  which 
reflected  the  cattle  grazing  in  the  field  before  the  house,  and 
gazed  with  amazement.  But  turning  from  these  sights  to  the 
library, — 'Now/  said  he  to  my  wife,  'does  your  old  gentleman' 
(for  that  is  my  title  here)  'read  those  books?'  'Yes/  said  she, 
'he  has  read  most  of  them/  — 'Why  if  I  was  to  read  half  of 
them,  I  should  drive  all  the  little  sense  in  my  head  out  of  it.' 
I  replied  that  we  read  to  increase  our  sense  and  our  knowl- 
edge; but  this  untutored  son  of  nature  could  not  conceive  of 
this  till  I  took  down  a  volume  of  Shaw's  Zoology.  'You,  Mr. 
Burke,  are  an  old  hunter,  and  have  met  with  many  snakes  in 
your  time.  I  never  saw  above  one  in  my  life;  now  if  I  can 
tell  you  about  your  snakes  and  deer,  and  bears  and  wolves,  as 
much  or  more  than  you  know,  you  will  see  the  use  of  books.' 
I  read  to  him  a  description  of  the  rattle-snake,  and  then  showed 
him  the  plate,  and  so  on.  His  attention  was  arrested,  and  his 
thirst  for  knowledge  fast  increasing.  'I  never  saw  an  Indian 
in  my  life,  and  yet/  said  I,  'I  can  tell  you  all  about  them.'  I 
read  again  and  shewed  him  a  coloured  plate.  'There/  said  he, 
'wife,  is  it  not  wonderful,  that  this  gentleman,  coming  so  many 
miles,  should  know  these  things  from  books  only?  See  ye/ 

"'Flower,  English  Settlement,  133;  Thwaites,  Early  Western  Travels, 
10:126-128;  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Journal,  6:248. 


170  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

said  he,  pointing  to  the  Indian,  'got  him  to  a  turn.'  In  short,  I 
never  felt  more  interested  for  an  hour  or  two,  to  see  how  this 
man's  mind  thirsted  after  knowledge;  and  though  he  dreaded 
the  appearance  of  so  many  books,  he  seemed,  before  he  left  us, 
as  if  he  could  spend  his  life  amongst  them. 

"Our  library  is  now  consolidated ;  and  that  the  kind  intentions 
of  yourself  and  others  may  not  be  lost,  and  that  your  names  may 
live  in  our  memories  and  be  perpetuated  to  future  generations,  I 
have  conveyed  all  the  books  presented  to  us,  in  trust  to  the 
proprietors  of  the  town,  for  the  use  of  the  Albion  Library ;  writ- 
ing the  names  of  the  donors  in  them;  and  in  my  next  letter  I 
shall,  pro  forma,  be  able  to  convey  to  you  our  united  thanks 
for  the  books  presented.  Our  little  library  is  the  admiration  of 
travellers,  and  Americans  say  we  have  accomplished  more  in 
one  year,  than  many  new  settlements  have  effected  in  fifty — a 
well  supplied  market,  a  neat  place  of  worship,  and  a  good 
library." 

This  first  public  library  in  Illinois  owed  its  existence  to  the 
unusual  character  of  the  founders  of  Albion  and  cannot  be 
considered  as  typical  of  frontier  Illinois.  Less  than  a  year  after 
it  was  founded,  however,  a  subscription  library  was  organized 
in  Edwardsville,  though  the  funds  for  it  evidently  were  collected 
with  some  difficulty.  On  August  7,  1819,  the  "Director"  gave 
notice  through  the  Spectator  that  the  books  ordered  from  Boston 
had  arrived,  and  urged  those  who  were  in  arrears  to  pay  their 
subscriptions,  so  that  they  might  entitle  "themselves  and  families 
to  the  use  of  one  of  the  best  collections  of  books  in  the  country." 
Fortunately  a  catalog  of  the  books  in  this  library  in  November, 
1819,  has  been  preserved;  it  is  worthy  of  reproduction  in  full 
as  evidence  of  the  books  which  were  available  for  reading  in 
this  pioneer  American  community. 

"American  State  Papers,  in  12  Volumes;  Adams'  Defense; 
Burns'  Poems ;  Blair's  Lectures ;  Brydon's  Tour ;  Butler's  Hudi- 
bras;  Beauties  of  History;  Bartram's  Travels;  Belknap's  Amer- 
ican Biography;  Coeleb's  in  Search  of  a  Wife;  Cowper's  Homer, 
4  volumes ;  Campaign  in  Russia ;  Carvel's  Travels ;  Camilla,  or  a 
Picture  of  Youth;  Clarke's  Travels;  Christian  Researches  in 
Asia;  Clarkson's  History;  Clark's  Naval  History;  Depom's 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  171 

Voyage;  Domestic  Encyclopedia;  Ely's  Journal;  Elements  of 
Criticism;  Ferguson's  Roman  Republic;  The  Federalist;  Guy 
Mannering;  Gibbon's  Rome,  4  volumes;  Goldsmith's  Works,  6 
volumes;  Grand  Pre's  Voyage;  Gil  Bias,  4  volumes;  History  of 
Carraccas;  History  of  Chili;  History  of  Greece;  History  of 
Charles  Fifth;  History  of  England;  Hawkworth's  Voyages; 
Humboldt's  New  Spain;  Jefferson's  Notes;  Letters  of  Junius; 
Marshall's  Life  of  Washington;  McFingal,  a  Modern  Epic 
Poem;  Mayo's  Ancient  Geography  and  History;  Modern 
Europe;  McLeod  on  the  Revelation;  McKenzie's  Voyage; 
Moore's  Poems;  McNevins'  Switzerland;  Ossian's  Poems; 
Practical  Education;  Plutarch's  Lives;  Porter's  Travels;  Ram- 
say's Washington;  Rob  Roy;  Rollin's  Ancient  History,  with 
atlas,  8  volumes;  Rumford's  Essays;  Robertson's  America; 
Scottish  Chiefs;  Sterne's  Works,  5  volumes;  Scott's  Works,  4 
volumes;  Salmagundi,  2  volumes;  Shakespeare's  Plays,  6 
volumes;  Spectator,  10  volumes;  Tales  of  My  Landlord;  Telem- 
achus;  Warsaw;  Travels  of  Anacharsis;  Thompson's  Seasons; 
Turnbull's  Voyages;  Universal  Gazetteer;  Vicissitudes  Abroad, 
6  volumes ;  Volney's  America ;  Virginia  Debates ;  Vicar  of  Wake- 
field;  Views  of  Louisiana;  Wirt's  Life  of  Patrick  Henry;  Watt's 
Logic;  Wealth  of  Nations;  Young's  Night  Thoughts;  Zimmer- 
man on  National  Pride."188 

A  century  ago,  a  considerable  part  of  the  reading  of  the  people 
was  furnished  by  newspapers,  just  as  it  is  now.  Besides  outside 
publications,  which  were  probably  taken  in  considerable  number, 
two  weekly  papers  printed  in  Illinois  at  the  time  it  became  a  state, 
were  available.  The  older  of  these  was  established  at  Kas- 
kaskia  in  1814  by  Matthew  Duncan,  with  the  name  of  Illinois 
Herald.  Its  publication  was  made  possible  by  both  federal  and 
territorial  patronage,  for  it  was  paid  liberally  for  printing  the 
United  States  laws  and  proclamations,  and  had  in  addition  a 
monopoly  of  the  public  printing  for  the  territory.  In  1816,  prob- 
ably in  April,  the  paper  was  sold  to  "Daniel  P.  Cook  and  Co." 
and  the  name  was  changed  to  Western  Intelligencer.  Late  in 
May  the  firm  name  was  changed  to  "Cook  and  Blackwell,"  in 

"'Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Journal,  6  -.246-247. 


172  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

September  it  became  "Berry  and  Cook,"  and  in  October  it 
changed  once  more,  this  time  to  "Berry  and  Blackwell."  With 
the  issue  of  May  27,  1818  the  title  was  changed  to  Illinois  Intel- 
ligencer™ 

Under  a  United  States  law  of  November  21,  1814,  the  secre- 
tary of  state  was  "authorized  to  cause  the  laws  of  the  United 
States,  passed,  or  to  be  passed,  during  the  present  or  any  future 
session  of  congress,  to  be  published  in  two  of  the  public  news- 
papers within  each  and  every  territory  of  the  United  States; 
Provided,  In  his  opinion,  it  shall  become  necessary  and  expe- 
dient."190 With  only  one  paper  printed  in  the  territory  it  would 
seem  that  an  opportunity  was  being  missed,  and  this  probably 
explains  the  establishment  of  the  second  paper  in  Illinois  in  the 
summer  of  1818.  The  promoters  of  the  enterprise  were  Henry 
Eddy,  a  young  lawyer,  and  Peter  Kimmel  and  his  sons,  printers, 
all  of  Pittsburgh.  With  the  aid  of  Nathaniel  Pope,  the  territo- 
rial delegate  in  congress,  they  secured  before  leaving  Pittsburgh 
authorization  for  printing  the  United  States  laws.  Loading  a 
press  on  a  flatboat,  they  floated  down  the  Ohio  to  Shawneetown, 
set  up  their  establishment,  and  began  to  publish  the  Illinois 
Emigrant.  The  firm  name  was  Eddy  and  Kimmel,  and  it  is 
probable  that  the  editorial  work  was  done  by  Eddy  while  the 
Kimmels,  who  were  somewhat  illiterate,  ran  the  printing  estab- 
lishment.191 

The  weekly  issues  of  both  papers  consisted  of  four  small  pages 
of  four  columns  each.  Rarely  were  more  than  two  columns 
devoted  to  local  news  and  editorial  comment.  Often  a  full  page 
or  more  was  required  for  the  printing  of  national  or  territorial 
laws,  and  further  space  was  occupied  by  official  notices  and  proc- 
lamations. Wrhen  congress  was  in  session  its  proceedings  and 
debates,  copied  from  a  Washington  paper,  were  printed  at  great 

"*Scott,  Newspapers  and  Periodicals,  xxvm,  211-212;  Intelligencer, 
Passim. 

""Statutes  at  Large,  3:145. 

'"Kimmel  to  Pope,  December  22,  1817;  Pope  to  Adams,  January  22,  1818; 
Adams  to  Pope,  January  23,  1818,  in  United  States  State  Department,  Bureau 
of  Indexes  and  Archives,  "Miscellaneous  Letters;"  Scott,  Newspapers  and 
Periodicals,  xxix,  314.  The  Shazvnec  Chief  listed  by  Scott  is  a  myth.  The 
paper  was  called  the  Illinois  Emigrant,  from  the  beginning.  There  appears  to 
be  no  evidence  that  the  two  papers  were  the  organs  of  rival  parties  in  1818. 


TROUSSEAU  TRUNK  OF  REBECCA  WELLS,  BROUGHT  TO  FORT  DEARBORN  1810 

[Loaned  by  her  granddaughter,  Martha  Heald  Johnson,  to  Chicago  Historical  Society. 
Reproduced  from  negative  in  possession  of  the  Society) 


PIANO  OF  MARTHA  FLOWER  (MRS.  WM.  PICKERING),  ELDEST  SISTER 
OF  GEORGE  FLOWER 

[Original  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society) 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  173 

length,  while  the  proceedings  of  the  territorial  legislature  and 
the  convention,  reported  briefly  in  the  Intelligencer,  were  copied 
in  the  Emigrant.  The  remaining  space  was  rilled  with  foreign 
news  and  literary  productions  in  both  prose  and  poetry  reprinted 
from  other  publications.  As  a  rule  about  one  fourth  of  each 
issue  was  occupied  with  advertisements  of  various  sorts.  Local 
merchants  called  attention  to  their  wares  in  notices  which  ran 
for  months  without  the  change  of  a  word ;  lawyers  and  physicians 
published  their  cards ;  and  those  who  wanted  to  buy  feather  beds, 
provisions,  law  books,  or  servants  were  told  to  "enquire  of  the 
printer."  During  a  political  campaign  and  occasionally  at  other 
times  much  space  was  given  over  to  lengthy  communications. 
Often  these  were  published  in  series  and  sometimes  they  took 
the  form  of  a  debate  which  would  drag  on  and  on  until  the 
issue  under  discussion  would  become  almost  wholly  obscured 
by  personalities.192 

The  spiritual  welfare  of  the  Illinois  pioneers  was  not  neglected. 
The  religious  observances,  with  the  exception  of  those  of  the 
French  Catholics,  were  of  the  familiar  frontier  type.  The  prin- 
cipal Protestant  denominations  at  the  close  of  the  territorial 
period  were  the  Methodists  and  the  Baptists,  the  latter  classified 
as  "regular,"  or  "hardshell,"  and  separating.  Presbyterian- 
ism  was  just  beginning  to  get  a  foothold.  The  ministers  were 
of  two  types — the  circuit  rider,  who  covered  wide  stretches  of 
country  and  devoted  all  his  time  to  religious  work,  and  the  occa- 
sional preacher  who  supplemented  his  meager  income  from  the 
church  by  farming  or  some  other  occupation.  Governor  Ford 
has  left  an  account  of  the  unlearned  but  zealous  frontier  preach- 
ers, of  their  sermons,  and  of  the  results  of  their  work,  which 
cannot  easily  be  improved  upon.  "Preachers  of  the  gospel  fre- 
quently sprung  up  from  the  body  of  the  people  at  home,  without 
previous  training,  except  in  religious  exercises  and  in  the  study 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  In  those  primitive  times  it  was  not 
thought  to  be  necessary  that  a  teacher  of  religion  should  be  a 
scholar.  It  was  thought  to  be  his  business  to  preach  from  a 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  alone,  to  make  appeals  warm  from 

mFor  examples  of  the  above  see  chs.  5,  8,  9. 


174  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

the  heart,  to  paint  heaven  and  hell  to  the  imagination  of  the 
sinner,  to  terrify  him  with  the  one,  and  to  promise  the  other 
as  a  reward  for  a  life  of  righteousness.  However  ignorant  these 
first  preachers  may  have  been,  they  could  be  at  no  loss  to  find 
congregations  still  more  ignorant,  so  that  they  were  still  capable 
of  instructing  some  one.  Many  of  them  added  to  their  knowl- 
edge of  the  Bible,  a  diligent  perusal  of  Young's  Night  Thoughts, 
Watts'  hymns,  Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  and  Hervey's  Meditations, 
a  knowledge  of  which  gave  more  compass  to  their  thoughts,  to 
be  expressed  in  a  profuse,  flowery  language,  and  raised  their 
feelings  to  the  utmost  height  of  poetical  enthusiasm. 

"Sometimes  their  sermons  turned  upon  matters  of  controversy ; 
unlearned  arguments  on  the  subject  of  free  grace,  baptism,  free 
will,  election,  faith,  good  works,  justification,  sanctification,  and 
the  final  perseverance  of  the  saints.  But  that  in  which  they 
excelled,  was  the  earnestness  of  their  words  and  manner,  leaving 
no  doubt  of  the  strongest  conviction  in  their  own  minds,  and  in 
the  vividness  of  the  pictures  which  they  drew  of  the  ineffable 
blessedness  of  heaven,  and  the  awful  torments  of  the  wicked  in 
the  fire  and  brimstone  appointed  for  eternal  punishment.  These, 
with  the  love  of  God  to  sinful  men,  the  sufferings  of  the  Saviour, 
the  dangerous  apathy  of  sinners,  and  exhortations  to  repentance, 
furnished  themes  for  the  most  vehement  and  passionate  decla- 
mations. But  above  all,  they  continually  inculcated  the  great 
principles  of  justice  and  sound  morality. 

"As  many  of  these  preachers  were  nearly  destitute  of  learning 
and  knowledge,  they  made  up  in  loud  hallooing  and  violent 
action  what  they  lacked  in  information.  And  it  was  a  matter 
of  astonishment  to  what  length  they  could  spin  out  a  sermon 
embracing  only  a  few  ideas.  The  merit  of  a  sermon  was  meas- 
ured somewhat  by  the  length  of  it,  by  the  flowery  language  of  the 
speaker,  and  by  his  vociferation  and  violent  gestures.  Neverthe- 
less, these  first  preachers  were  of  incalculable  benefit  to  the 
country.  They  inculcated  justice  and  morality,  and  to  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  highest  human  motives  to  regard  them,  added  those 
which  arise  from  a  belief  of  the  greatest  conceivable  amount  of 
future  rewards  and  punishments.  They  were  truly  patriotic 
also;  for  at  a  time  when  the  country  was  so  poor  that  no  other 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  175 

kind  of  ministry  could  have  been  maintained  in  it,  they  preached 
without  charge  to  the  people,  working  week  days  to  aid  the  scanty 
charities  of  their  flocks,  in  furnishing  themselves  with  a  scantier 
living.  They  believed  with  a  positive  certainty  that  they  saw 
the  souls  of  men  rushing  to  perdition ;  and  they  stepped  forward 
to  warn  and  to  save,  with  all  the  enthusiasm  and  self-devotion  of 
a  generous  man  who  risks  his  own  life  to  save  his  neighbor  from 
drowning.  And  to  them  are  we  indebted  for  the  first  Christian 
character  of  the  Protestant  portion  of  this  people."198 

The  Methodist  church  was  very  active  during  the  later  ter- 
ritorial period,  under  the  leadership  of  such  vigorous  characters 
as  Jesse  Walker  and  Peter  Cartwright.  In  1818  there  were  five 
circuits  in  the  Illinois  district,  one  with  three  preachers;  four 
with  one  preacher  each.  In  addition  there  was  a  presiding  elder 
for  the  district.  A  contemporary  account  of  one  of  the  rounds 
of  Jesse  Walker,  and  John  Scripps,  as  written  by  the  latter,  will 
serve  to  illustrate  the  character  of  the  work  and  the  difficulties 
encountered. 

"He  commenced  this  round  at  Goshen  meeting-house,  near 
the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Edwardsville,  Illinois,  on  Friday, 
the  ist  of  April.  Closing  his  meeting  on  -Monday,  the  4th,  he 
traveled  a  zigzag  route,  filling  daily  and  nightly  appointments 
in  different  neighborhoods  in  the  Illinois  Circuit,  till  he  arrived 
at  the  Big  Spring  meeting-house  on  Friday,  the  8th,  where, 
in  a  protracted  meeting,  he  labored  till  Monday,  the  nth.  A 
second  week  of  similar  services,  through  otherwise  destitute  set- 
tlements, brought  him  to  Davis's  school-house,  below  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Big  Muddy  River  with  the  Mississippi,  probably 
one  hundred  miles  south  of  his  starting-point.  I  found  him  here 
on  Saturday,  the  i6th,  accompanied  by  Jacob  Whitesides  (then 
just  putting  on  the  itinerant  harness).  At  this  place  there  were 
some  conversions,  and  a  class  of  sixteen  persons  was  formed. 
Jacob  Whitesides  was  sent  back  to  labor  in  the  field  of  the  last 
week's  operations,  with  directions  to  form  a  new  circuit,  which 
was  eventually  effected,  and  it  was  denominated  the  Okaw 
Circuit. 

"'Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  38-40. 


176  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

"On  Monday,  the  i8th,  Jesse  Walker,  J.  Patterson,  and  myself 
set  out  for  the  Massac  camp-meeting,  to  be  held  at  the  Rock  and 
Cave,  on  the  Ohio  River.  We  traveled  this  day  in  an  easterly 
direction,  through  a  generally  uninhabited  country  and  almost 
pathless  woods,  thirty-two  miles,  to  Thomas  Standard's,  where 
a  congregation,  previously  notified  by  Brother  Patterson,  awaited 
our  arrival.  The  exercises  of  the  evening  were  thrillingly  inter- 
esting, and  continued  till  midnight.  About  noon  the  next  day 
we  separated,  still  tending  onward  in  devious  paths  to  hold  night- 
meetings  six  or  eight  miles  apart,  to  meet  again  the  next  day, 
probably  again  to  part  for  the  night,  to  hold  as  many  meetings 
as  our  numbers  and  the  localities  of  the  neighborhood  would 
admit  of.  On  Friday,  the  22d,  we  arrived  at  the  camp-ground. 
Services  commenced  immediately  upon  our  arrival,  and  during 
the  entire  progress  of  the  meeting  we  had  precious  seasons  of 
refreshing  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  several  conversions, 
and  many  accessions  to  the  Church.  Brother  J.  Johnson  was 
with  us  one  of  the  nights,  and  preached  for  us.  This  meeting 
broke  on  Monday.  Brother  Walker  closed  the  services  with  an 
interesting  discourse ;  but  Monday  night  found  him  several  miles 
on  his  way  to  his  next  appointment,  again  holding  forth  to  a 
large  congregation  in  Proctor's  meeting-house.  But  to  particu- 
larize his  labors  would  swell  this  account  to  too  great  an  extent. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that,  crossing  the  Big  Wabash  near  its  mouth, 
we  ascended  that  river  in  the  then  Territory  of  Indiana,  crossed 
the  Black  River,  Patoka  and  White  Rivers,  to  Brother  Johnson's, 
about  twelve  miles  from  Vincennes.  By  the  next  Friday,  April 
29th,  the  quarterly-meeting  for  Vincennes  Circuit  was  held.  It 
was  a  time  of  power,  and  closed  Monday  morning.  We  made 
a  short  travel  that  day  of  six  or  eight  miles,  and  held  a  night- 
meeting  at  Dr.  Messick's ;  the  next  day,  noon,  at  Harrington's 
Tavern;  at  night  at  Anthony  Griffin's,  on  Black  River.  We 
recrossed  the  Wabash,  and  commenced  the  Wabash  Quarterly- 
meeting,  Friday,  May  6th,  at  Brother  Hannah's,  in  a  block-house, 
from  which  our  next  appointment  was  one  hundred  and  seventy 
or  eighty  miles  south-west  across  the  Mississippi,  to  New  Madrid 
Circuit,  Missouri  Territory,  commencing  Friday,  the  I3th; 


JOHN  MASON  PECK 

[From  picture  owned  by  Illinois  State  Historical  Library] 


FOOT-WARMER  USED  IN  THE  CHURCHES  OR  OTHER  PLACES 
WHERE  THERE  WAS  No  FIRE 

[Original  in  Missouri  Historical  Society,  St.  Louis 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  177 

thence  sixty  miles  north  to  Cape  Girardeau  Circuit,  May  2oth. 
At  both  these  appointments,  and  all  subsequent  to  them  through 
the  Summer,  camp-meetings  were  held,  the  necessity  for  which 
grew  out  of  the  fact  that  no  one-room,  or  even  two-room,  log- 
cabin  (and  we  had  no  other  sort  of  houses)  was  capable  of  enter- 
taining one-half  or  even  one-fourth  of  Jesse  Walker's  quarterly- 
meetings;  for  his  regular  Sabbath  congregations  collected,  far 
and  near,  from  ten,  twenty,  or  thirty  miles  around,  to  these 
attractive  centers  of  religious  services.  From  Cape  Girardeau 
Brother  Walker  proceeded,  by  himself,  to  hold  a  camp  and  quar- 
terly meeting  on  Saline  Circuit,  commencing  Friday,  2/th;  on 
the  Maramec  Circuit,  June  3d;  Cold  Water,  loth;  and  Missouri 
Circuit,  June  I7th;  to  which  appointment,  following  the  cir- 
cuitous route  he  had  to  travel,  it  was  upwards  of  two  hundred 
miles  north;  and  here,  on  Monday,  the  2Oth  of  June,  he  con- 
cluded his  second  round  of  meetings,  about  eighty  miles  north- 
west of  home,  and  sixty  from  Goshen,  the  commencement  of  this 
round,  where  he  again  preached  in  returning  to  his  family,  there 
to  enjoy  a  few  day's  respite,  to  repair  his  itinerant  gear,  and 
prepare  for  the  still  more  extensive  operations  of  the  Summer 
campaign,  under  the  more  favorable  auspices  of  shallow  streams, 
better  roads,  longer  days,  and  the  sweltering  fervor  of  a  July  sun. 
"Such  labors  as  I  have  recounted  would,  in  these  times  of  good 
roads,  bridged  waters,  wealthy  friends,  comfortable  accommoda- 
tions, and  table  luxuries,  be  deemed  great ;  but  the  circumstances 
under  which  Jesse  Walker  performed  them  were  characterized 
by  difficulties,  dangers,  privations,  and  sufferings  almost  incon- 
ceivable in  the  present  improved  state  of  things.  Our  roads  were 
narrow,  winding  horse-paths,  sometimes  scarcely  perceptible,  and 
frequently  for  miles  no  path  at  all,  amid  tangled  brushwood,  over 
fallen  timber,  rocky  glens,  mountainous  precipices;  through 
swamps  and  low  grounds,  overflowed  or  saturated  with  water 
for  miles  together,  and  consequently  muddy,  which  the  breaking 
up  of  the  Winter  and  the  continued  rains  gave  a  continued  supply 
of;  the  streams  some  of  them  large  and  rapid,  swollen  to  over- 
flowing, we  had  to  swim  on  our  horses,  carrying  our  saddle-bags 


178  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

on  our  shoulders.  It  was  a  common  occurrence,  in  our  journey- 
ing, to  close  our  day's  ride  drenched  to  the  skin  by  continually 
descending  rains,  for  which  that  Spring  was  remarkable.  Our 
nights  were  spent,  not  in  two  but  in  one  room  log-cabins,  each 
generally  constituting  our  evening  meeting-house,  kitchen,  nurs- 
ery, parlor,  dining  and  bed  room, — all  within  the  dimensions  of 
sixteen  feet  square,  and  not  unfrequently  a  loom  occupying  one- 
fourth  of  it,  together  with  spinning-wheels  and  other  apparatus 
for  manufacturing  their  apparel — our  congregations  requiring 
our  services  till  ten  or  twelve  o'clock;  our  supper  after  dismis- 
sion, not  of  select,  but  of  just  such  aliment  as  our  hospitable 
entertainers  could  provide  (for  hospitable,  in  the  highest  sense 
of  the  word,  they  were)  ;  corn-cakes,  fried  bacon,  sometimes 
butter,  with  milk  or  herb-tea,  or  some  substitute  for  coffee.  At 
the  Rock  and  Cave  camp-meeting,  the  measles  being  very  preva- 
lent in  the  congregation,  I  took  them.  Very  high  fevers  were  the 
first  symptom;  but,  unconscious  of  the  cause  and  nature  of  my 
affliction,  I  continued  traveling  through  all  weathers  for  upwards 
of  two  weeks,  before  the  complaint  developed  its  character.  My 
stomach  became  very  delicate,  and  through  a  populous  part  of 
our  journey  I  inquired  for  coffee  at  every  house  we  passed,  and 
was  invariably  directed  to  Mr.  L.'s,  several  miles  ahead,  as  the 
only  probable  place  for  the  procurement  of  the  grateful  beverage. 
On  making  known  my  wants  to  Mrs.  L.,  she  searched  and  found 
a  few  scattered  grains  at  the  bottom  of  a  chest,  of  which  she 
made  us  two  cupfuls. 

"We  have  sometimes  sat  in  the  large  fire-place,  occupying  the 
entire  end  of  a  log  cabin,  and  plucked  from  out  the  smoke  of  the 
chimney  above  us  pieces  of  dried  and  smoked  venison,  or  jerk, 
the  only  provision  the  place  could  afford  us,  and  the  only  food 
the  inmates  had  to  sustain  themselves,  till  they  could  obtain  it 
by  the  cultivation  of  the  soil.  Our  horses  fared  worse,  in  muddy 
pens,  or  tied  up  to  saplings  or  corners  of  the  cabin,  regaled  with 
the  refuse  of  the  Winter's  fodder,  sometimes  (when  we  could 
not  restrain  over-liberality)  with  seed-corn,  purchased  in  Ken- 
tucky at  a  dollar  per  bushel,  and  brought  in  small  quantities, 
according  to  the  circumstances  of  the  purchaser,  one  hundred 
miles  or  more  at  some  expense  and  trouble.  This,  when  they 


.  .  .,,. 


CAIRO 
[From  Wild,  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  (1841),  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 


[From  copy  in  possession  of  Illinois  State  Historical  Library] 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  179 

had  it,  our  remonstrances  to  the  contrary  could  not  prevent  being 
pounded  in  mortars  to  make  us  bread.  Our  lodgings  were  on 
beds  of  various  qualities,  generally  feather-beds,  but  not  unfre- 
quently  fodder,  chaff,  shucks,  straw,  and  sometimes  only  deer- 
skins, but  always  the  best  the  house  afforded,  either  spread  on 
the  rough  puncheon  floor  before  the  fire  (from  which  we  must 
rise  early  to  make  room  for  breakfast  operations),  or  on  a 
patched-up  platform  attached  to  the  wall,  which  not  unfrequently 
would  fall  down,  sometimes  in  the  night,  with  its  triplicate  burden 
of  three  in  a  bed.  Such  incidents  would  occasion  a  little  mirth 
among  us,  but  we  would  soon  fix  up  and  be  asleep  again.  Now, 
I  would  here  remark,  that  many  of  these  privations  could  have 
been  avoided  by  keeping  a  more  direct  course  from  one  quarterly- 
meeting  to  another,  and  selecting,  with  a  view  to  comfort,  our 
lodging-places.  But  Brother  Walker  sought  not  personal  com- 
fort so  much  as  the  good  of  souls,  and  he  sought  the  most  desti- 
tute, in  their  most  retired  recesses,  and  in  their  earliest  settle- 
ments."194 

In  spite  of  the  tremendous  exertions  of  the  pioneer  preachers, 
many  of  the  remote  settlements  must  have  been  practically  devoid 
of  religious  observances,  and  even  in  the  older  settlements  the 
influence  of  occasional  visitations,  however  inspiring  they  might 
be,  was  often  lacking  in  permanence.  "The  American  inhabit- 
ants in  the  Vilages,"  wrote  John  Messinger  in  1815,  "appear  to 
have  very  little  reverence  for  Christianity  or  serious  things  in 
any  point  of  view."105  Reynolds  is  authority  for  the  statement 
that,  "in  early  times,  in  many  settlements  of  Illinois,  Sunday  was 
observed  by  the  Americans  only  as  a  day  of  rest  from  work. 
They  generally  were  employed  in  hunting,  fishing,  getting  up 
their  stock,  hunting  bees,  breaking  young  horses,  shooting  at 
marks,  horse  and  foot  racing  and  the  like.  When  the  Americans 
were  to  make  an  important  journey  they  generally  started  on 
Sunday  and  never  on  Friday — they  often  said  'The  better  the 
day  the  better  the  deed.'  "196 

mLeaton,  Methodism  in  Illinois,  110-115,  151. 

""Messinger  to  Lee,  June  30,  1815,  Messinger  manuscripts. 

""Reynolds,  My  Own  Times,  80. 


180  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

In  view  of  the  inadequate  facilities  for  educational  and  reli- 
gious developments,  the  mental  quality  of  the  Illinois  pioneers  was 
surprisingly  high,  according  to  the  recollections  of  Robert  W. 
Patterson.  "But  in  spite  of  the  prejudices  and  illiteracy  of  many 
of  our  early  citizens,"  he  states,  "they  were  by  no  means  an  un- 
thinking people,  their  minds  were  stimulated  by  the  necessity  of 
invention  imposed  upon  them  by  their  peculiar  circumstances; 
by  the  political  discussions  in  which  they  became  interested  from 
one  election  to  another ;  by  the  moral  questions  that  were  debated 
among  them ;  and,  above  all,  by  the  religious  discourses  to  which 
they  often  listened,  and  the  controversies  between  the  adherents 
of  different  sects,  in  which  almost  everybody  sympathized  with 
one  party  or  another.  It  was  surprising  to  find  men  and  women 
of  little  or  no  reading,  ready  to  defend  their  opinions  on  almost 
every  subject,  with  plausible,  and  sometimes  exceedingly  forcible, 
reasons.  Women,  especially,  were  even  more  accustomed  then 
than  now  to  discuss  grave  questions  which  required  thought  and 
provoked  earnest  reflection.  Often  a  woman  of  unpromising 
appearance  and  manners  would  prove  more  than  a  match  for  a 
well-educated  man  in  a  religious  dispute.  In  one  sense  the  people 
were  intelligent,  while  they  had  little  of  such  knowledge  as  read- 
ers usually  derive  from  books.  Their  intelligence  consisted 
mainly  in  the  results  of  reflection,  and  conversations  one  with 
another,  and  in  varied  information  derived  from  their  ancestors 
by  tradition.  In  respect  to  knowledge  of  human  nature  and 
judgments  upon  the  characters  of  men,  they  were  far  in  advance 
of  many  who  were  learned  in  literature,  science,  art,  and  history ; 
and,  accordingly,  many  men  of  inferior  education  in  those  days 
competed  successfully  with  rivals  who  had  enjoyed  the  best  early 
advantages.  This  was  often  witnessed  in  the  political  conflicts 
of  the  times,  and  in  the  ministerial,  legal,  and  medical  profes- 
sion."197 

'"Patterson,  "Early  Society  in  Southern  Illinois,"  in  Fergus  Historical 
Series,  no.  14:124-125. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION 

At  the  beginning  of  1818  the  region  now  included  in  the  state 
of  Illinois  together  with  the  extensive  area  to  the  northward 
stretching  to  the  international  boundary  comprised  the  territory 
of  Illinois.  After  the  occupation  of  the  French  villages  in  the 
Illinois  country  by  Virginia  troops  under  George  Rogers  Clark, 
the  region  was  organized  as  a  county  of  Virginia,198  but  in  1784 
Virginia  ceded  her  claims  to  the  federal  government.  The  act 
by  which  this  cession  was  accomplished  contained  one  clause  of 
great  importance  for  the  future  of  the  Illinois  country.  This 
provided,  "that  the  French  and  Canadian  inhabitants,  and  other 
settlers  of  the  Kaskaskies,  Saint  Vincents,  and  the  neighboring 
villages,  who  have  professed  themselves  citizens  of  Virginia,  shall 
have  their  possessions  and  titles  confirmed  to  them,  and  be  pro- 
tected in  the  enjoyment  of  their  rights  and  liberties."199  At 
the  moment  this  provision  confirmed  to  the  inhabitants  their 
titles  to  a  few  negro  slaves ;  in  future  years  it  was  to  be  invoked 
as  a  guarantee  of  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  state. 

The  claims  of  other  states  to  jurisdiction  over  the  northwest 
also  having  been  surrendered  to  the  federal  government,  the  con- 
gress of  the  confederation,  as  one  of  its  last  acts,  passed  the  Ordi- 
nance of  1787,  by  which  was  organized  the  "territory  of  the 
United  States  northwest  of  the  river  Ohio."200  This  ordinance 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  American  colonial  or  territorial 
system ;  and  the  political  and  governmental  conditions  in  Illinois 
territory  cannot  be  understood  without  a  consideration  of  its 

W8Alvord,  Cahokia  Records,  LII. 
'"Thorpe,  Constitutions,  2:956. 
**Ibid.,  2 1957-962. 

(181) 


182 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


WOOL  CARDER 

[Original   owned   by   William   Wilkinson, 
Roodhouse] 


essential  provisions.  The  government  of  the  territory  was 
vested  for  the  time  being  in  a  governor,  a  secretary,  and  three 
judges,  to  be  appointed  by  congress.201  The  governor  and  judges 
sitting  as  a  legislature  were  authorized  to  adopt  such  laws  of 
the  original  states  as  might  be  necessary ;  the 
governor  singly  was  given  the  power  to 
appoint  all  local  magistrates  and  other  civil 
officers  and  also  all  militia  officers  below 
the  rank  of  general  officers,  the 
last  being  appointed  by  con- 
gress. It  will  thus  be  seen  that 
the  people  of  the  territory 
were  given  no  voice  whatever 
in  their  government,  either 
general  or  local.  This  was  only 
a  temporary  arrangement ; 
whenever  there  should  "be  five 
thousand  free  male  inhabitants, 
of  full  age,  in  the  district"  a 
legislature  was  to  be  established  consisting  of  the  governor,  rep- 
resentatives elected  by  the  freeholders,  and  a  council  of  five 
members  selected  by  congress  from  ten  nominated  by  the  terri- 
torial house  of  representatives.  This  legislature  was  to  have 
authority  to  make  laws  not  repugnant  to  the  ordinance;  but  to 
the  governor  was  given  the  power  to  convene,  prorogue,  and  dis- 
solve the  legislature,  as  well  as  an  absolute  veto  over  all  its  acts. 
The  legislature,  by  joint  ballot,  was  to  elect  a  delegate  to  con- 
gress, who  should  have  the  right  to  speak  but  not  to  vote.  Among 
the  qualifications  required  of  members  of  the  legislature  was  the 
possession  of  a  freehold  of  two  hundred  acres  of  land  for  a  rep- 
resentative and  five  hundred  for  a  councilor. 

The  last  section  of  the  ordinance  consisted  of  six  "articles  of 
compact,  between  the  original  States  and  the  people  and  States 
in  the  said  territory"  which  were  forever  to  "remain  unalter- 
able, unless  by  common  consent."  It  should  be  noted,  however, 

""When  the  new  government  under  the  constitution  was  established,  it 
was  provided  that  the  appointments  should  be  made  by  the  president  instead 
of  by  congress.  Thorpe,  Constitutions,  2  -.963-964. 


THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  183 

that  this  was  a  one-sided  compact,  as  the  consent  of  the  people 
residing  in  the  district  was  never  asked  or  secured.  Two  of 
these  articles  are  of  special  significance  in  connection  with  a 
study  of  Illinois  in  1818.  One  of  these,  the  fifth,  provided  that 
"there  shall  be  formed  in  the  said  territory  not  less  than  three, 
nor  more  than  five  States."  The  boundary  between  the  two 
western  states  was  to  be  the  Wabash  as  far  north  as  "Post  Vin- 
cents" and  thence  a  direct  line  drawn  from  the  Wabash  and 
"Post  Vincents,"  due  north,  to  the  territorial  line  between  the 
United  States  and  Canada.  Should  the  establishment  of  more 
than  three  states  seem  expedient,  congress  was  to  "have  au- 
thority to  form  one  or  two  States  in  that  part  of  the  said  terri- 
tory which  lies  north  of  an  east  and  west  line  drawn  through 
the  southerly  bend  or  extreme  of  Lake  Michigan."  Each  of 
these  states  was  to  be  admitted  into  the  union  whenever  there 
should  be  sixty  thousand  free  inhabitants  within  its  limits. 

The  most  famous  feature  of  the  ordinance  was  that  con- 
tained in  the  sixth  of  the  articles  of  compact,  which  provided 
that  "there  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in 
the  said  territory,  otherwise  than  in  punishment  of  crimes, 
whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted."  This  would 
seem  to  be  a  positive  prohibition  of  the  continuance  of  slavery 
northwest  of  the  Ohio ;  but,  in  view  of  the  guarantee  in  the  Vir- 
gina  act  of  cession,  it  was  interpreted  from  the  beginning  as 
applying  only  to  the  future  introduction  of  slavery;  and  slaves 
continued  to  be  held  in  the  region  for  half  a  century. 

The  government  provided  for  by  the  ordinance  was  estab- 
lished at  Marietta  in  1788  and  two  years  later  it  was  extended 
to  the  Illinois  country,  which  was  organized  as  St.  Clair  county. 
Knox  county,  formed  the  same  year  with  its  seat  at  Vincennes, 
included  the  eastern  half  of  what  is  now  the  state  of  Illinois.202 
In  1 795  Randolph  county  was  established  from  the  southern  part 
of  St.  Clair.  In  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the  ordi- 
nance, all  the  officials  in  these  counties  were  appointed  by  the 

""In  1801  the  boundaries  of  St.  Clair  and  Randolph  counties  were  ex- 
tended nearly  to  the  Wabash,  and  the  remainder  of  Knox  county  in  what 
became  Illinois  was  incorporated  with  them  when  the  division  took  place  in 
1809.  Illinois  Blue  Book,  1905,  p.  376. 


184 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


governor.  Aften  ten  years  of  rule  by  the  governor  and  judges, 
the  territory  passed  to  the  second  grade;  and  the  first  legisla- 
ture met  in  Cincinnati  in  1799.  St. 
Clair  and  Randolph  counties  were  rep- 
resented in  the  house  by  Shadrach 
Bond  and  John  Edgar  respectively. 
William  Henry  Harrison,  recently  ap- 
pointed secretary  of  the  territory,  was 
elected  by  this  legislature  as  the  dele- 
gate to  congress  and  there  in  1800 
secured  the  passage  of  an  act  dividing 
the  northwest  territory  and  establish- 
ing the  western  part  as  Indiana  terri- 
tory. He  also  secured  his  own  appoint- 
ment as  governor  of  the  new  territory. 
The  provisions  for  the  government  of 
Indiana  territory  were  practically 
identical  with  those  contained  in  the 
Ordinance  of  1787,  with  the  exception 
that  it  might  pass  to  the  second  grade 
whenever  the  governor  should  be  con- 
vinced that  the  majority  of  the  people 
desired  the  change. 
During  the  period  from  1800  to  1809,  when  Illinois  was  a 
part  of  Indiana  territory,  the  principal  issues  of  a  political  char- 
acter were  the  passage  to  the  second  grade  and  the  division  of 
the  territory;  and  inextricably  bound  up  with  these  was  the 
question  of  the  admission  of  slavery.  There  is  no  evidence  that 
national  politics  affected  to  any  appreciable  extent  the  politics 
of  the  territory  during  this  period,  but  the  people  and  their 
political  leaders  divided  on  the  above  issues  and  also  to  some 
extent  into  personal  factions.  The  more  influential  of  the  new 
settlers  in  the  Illinois  country  as  well  as  the  old  French  inhab- 
itants were  strongly  in  favor  of  the  repeal  or  at  least  the  sus- 
pension of  the  slavery  article  in  the  ordinance,  probably  be- 
cause they  believed  it  hampered  the  development  of  the  territory. 
So  early  as  1796  a  petition  was  sent  to  congress  praying  for  the 


FLAX  HACKLE 

[Original    owned    by    William 
Wilkinson,   Roodhouse] 


THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  185 

repeal  of  the  article,  signed  by  John  Edgar,  William  Morrison, 
William  St.  Clair,  and  John  Dumoulin,  leading  men  in  St.  Clair 
and  Randolph  counties.  These  men  professed  to  sign  "for  and 
on  behalf  of  the  inhabitants"  of  the  counties  and  there  is  little 
doubt  that  they  expressed  the  sentiments  of  a  large  majority  of 
those  inhabitants;  but  they  presented  no  evidence  to  that  effect 
and  the  petition  was  rejected.208 

When  Indiana  territory  was  established  it  is  probable  that  a 
majority  of  its  inhabitants  were  in  favor  of  a  change  in  the 
slavery  article.  The  Illinois  people  at  once  prepared  another 
petition  to  congress  praying  for  such  a  change  and  for  the  ex- 
tinction of  the  Indian  title  in  southern  Illinois.  This  document, 
dated  October  i,  1800,  bears  270  signatures,  mostly  French,  but 
including  the  names  of  such  leading  Americans  as  John  Edgar, 
John  Rice  Jones,  William  Morrison,  Robert  Morrison,  and 
Shadrach  Bond.  The  fact  that  congress  ignored  the  petition  was 
probably  a  factor  in  inducing  the  Illinois  leaders  the  following 
year  to  agitate  for  advance  to  the  second  grade,  in  order  that 
the  territory  might  have  a  delegate  to  urge  the  desired  measure 
in  congress.  In  this  action,  however,  they  met  with  the  opposi- 
tion of  Governor  Harrison  who  had  no  desire  to  give  up  so  soon 
a  part  of  his  extensive  power.  The  governor  had  a  numerous 
coterie  of  followers  in  Knox  county  and  by  means  of  the  pat- 
ronage exerted  a  powerful  influence  throughout  the  territory. 
He  had  little  difficulty,  therefore,  in  suppressing  the  movement 
by  issuing  a  letter  in  which  attention  was  called  to  the  increased 
expenses  which  would  be  involved. 

Harrison  and  his  party  differed  with  what  may  for  conven- 
ience be  called  the  Edgar  and  Morrison  party  as  to  methods 
rather  than  ends,  for  both  factions  were  in  favor  of  the  in- 
troduction of  more  slaves.  The  method  selected  by  the  governor 
was  the  calling  of  an  extralegal  convention  which  met  in  Vin- 
cennes  in  1802  and  petitioned  congress  for  a  suspension  of  the 


best  account  of  the  politics  of  Indiana  territory  from  1800  to  1809 
is  in  Dunn,  Indiana,  chs.  8-10.  The  originals  of  the  petitions  and  memorials 
referred  to  below  are  in  the  House  and  Senate  Files.  Some  of  them  have 
been  printed  in  Indiana  Historical  Society,  Publications,  2  -.447-529.  See  also 
Woollen,  Biographical^  and  Historical  Sketches  of  Early  Indiana,  4-5  ;  Amer- 
ican State  Papers,  Miscellaneous,  I  -.450,  467,  477,  484-485,  922,  945. 


186  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

slavery  article  for  a  term  of  ten  years.  Neither  Edgar  nor 
William  Morrison  were  among  the  six  Illinois  men  in  this  con- 
vention although  Robert  Morrison,  a  brother  of  William,  was 
one  of  them.  In  the  national  house  of  representatives  this  peti- 
tion was  referred  to  a  committee,  which  through  its  chairman, 
John  Randolph,  presented  an  adverse  report.  In  later  sessions 
other  committees  reported  in  favor  of  suspension,  but  no  action 
was  ever  taken. 

Having  failed  in  this  direction  the  governor  and  judges  pro- 
ceeded in  1803  to  pass  "A  Law  Concerning  Servants"  which 
provided  that  a  person  coming  into  the  territory  "under  contract 
to  serve  another  in  any  trade  or  occupation  shall  be  compelled 
to  perform  such  contract  specifically  during  the  term  thereof." 
The  purpose  of  this  act  was  to  introduce  a  form  of  slavery  in 
the  guise  of  indentured  servitude,  but  the  legislative  powers  of 
the  governor  and  judges  were  so  limited  that  the  Harrison  fac- 
tion executed  an  about  face  on  the  question  of  advancing  to  sec- 
ond grade;  for  it  was  believed  that  an  unrestricted  legislature 
could  pass  a  more  satisfactory  indenture  law.  On  August  4, 
1804,  therefore,  the  governor  issued  a  proclamation  for  an 
election  to  be  held  September  1 1  to  determine  the  wishes  of  the 
people  on  the  subject. 

Meanwhile  the  members  of  the  Edgar  and  Morrison  faction  in 
Illinois,  probably  because  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  distribution 
of  the  patronage,  were  becoming  more  and  more  hostile  to  the 
governor  and  his  supporters,  and  in  1803  they  grasped  at  what 
appeared  to  be  an  opportunity  at  once  of  escaping  from  his  con- 
trol and  of  securing  the  coveted  admission  of  slavery.  Learning 
of  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  they  prepared  petitions  asking 
congress  to  join  the  Illinois  country  to  the  new  territory  to  be 
formed  west  of  the  river.  Congress  instead  placed  the  new  dis- 
trict of  Louisiana  temporarily  under  the  governor  and  judges 
of  Indiana  territory  but  not  as  a  part  of  that  territory. 

In  spite  of  the  advantages  for  the  proslavery  advocates 
which  the  advance  to  second  grade  offered,  the  Edgar  and  Mor- 
rison faction  reversed  their  former  position  and  opposed  the 
change,  apparently  for  no  other  reason  than  their  hostility  to 
the  governor  and  his  faction.  They  were  able  to  carry  St.  Clair 


THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  187 

county  against  the  measure,  the  vote  being  22  to  59,  but  Harri- 
son's friends  and  appointees  in  Randolph,  led  by  Dr.  George 
Fisher  and  Pierre  Menard,  carried  that  county  by  a  vote  of  40 
to  21.  Knox  county  voted  overwhelmingly  for  the  change,  but 
the  attitude  of  Dearborn  county  in  eastern  Indiana,  where  all  the 
26  votes  were  cast  against  the  measure,  indicates  the  appearance 
of  a  new  faction  in  Indiana  politics,  a  faction  strongly  opposed 
to  the  introduction  of  slavery.  The  totals  were  269  to  131, 
making  a  majority  on  the  face  of  the  returns  of  138  in  favor 
of  the  change.  No  election  was  held  in  Wayne  county  (De- 
troit) however,  and  the  light  vote  cast  would  indicate  that 
there  was  some  truth  in  the  charge  that  the  whole  affair  was  a 
snap  election. 

Governor  Harrison  at  once  issued  a  proclamation  for  an  elec- 
tion of  nine  representatives;  these  assembled  in  Vincennes  in 
1805  and  proceeded  to  nominate  councilors  to  the  president.  The 
representatives  from  the  Illinois  counties  were  Shadrach  Bond 
and  William  Biggs  of  St.  Clair  and  Dr.  George  Fisher  of  Ran- 
dolph, while  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  later  of  Illinois,  represented 
Dearborn  county.  Of  the  five  councilors  selected  by  Harrison 
from  the  ten  nominated  by  the  house — for  the  president  secretly 
delegated  his  power  of  choice  to  the  governor — two,  Pierre 
Menard  and  John  Hay  were  from  the  Illinois  country.  The  leg- 
islature selected  Benjamin  Parke  of  Vincennes,  a  personal  and 
political  friend  of  the  governor,  as  delegate  to  congress,  and 
then  proceeded  to  the  passage  of  an  indenture  law.  This  act 
of  1805,  which  was  revised  and  reenacted  in  1807,  provided  that 
a  slave  over  fifteen  years  of  age  might  be  brought  into  the  ter- 
ritory and  within  thirty  days  enter  into  a  formal  agreement  to 
serve  as  an  indentured  servant  for  a  certain  number  of  years. 
The  agreement  was  to  be  made  a  matter  of  record,  and  should 
the  slave  refuse  to  bind  himself,  the  master  was  allowed  sixty 
days  in  which  to  remove  him  from  the  territory.  Children  born 
of  indentured  servants  were  to  serve  the  master  of  the  mother, 
males  to  the  age  of  thirty,  and  females,  of  twenty-eight.  Slaves 
under  fifteen  might  be  brought  in  and  simply  registered  to  serve, 
males  until  thirty-five  and  females  until  thirty-two  years  of  age. 

It  is  useless  at  this  date  to  raise  the  question  as  to  whether 


188  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

the  indentured  servitude  established  by  this  act  was  or  was 
not  "slavery  or  involuntary  servitude"  and  thus  in  viola- 
tion of  the  ordinance.  Certain  it  is  that  the  ends  sought  by  the 
act  were  approved  by  a  majority  of  the  people  in  Illinois  and 
in  the  western  part  of  what  came  to  be  the  state  of  Indiana. 
Only  in  Dearborn  and  Clark  counties  of  Indiana  was  there  any 
considerable  opposition  to  it. 

During  the  summer  of  1805  the  anti-Harrison  faction  in  Illi- 
nois circulated  a  petition  for  the  division  of  Indiana  territory. 
In  this  they  were  probably  actuated  principally  by  the  belief  that 
such  a  division  would  improve  their  political  fortunes  and  would 
be  distasteful  to  their  opponents,  the  Harrison  faction;  but  they 
may  have  been  influenced  also  by  a  feeling  that  a  separate  Illi- 
nois might  secure  complete  and  unrestricted  slavery  and  also  by 
a  fear  that  the  growing  antislavery  population  of  eastern  In- 
diana would  put  in  jeopardy  the  indenture  system.  Besides  pray- 
ing for  division  they  asked  that  the  slavery  article  might  be 
repealed  or  modified  so  far  as  it  affected  the  proposed  new  terri- 
tory. Among  the  grievances  alleged  by  the  petitioners  was 
their  "having  been  unwarrantably  precipitated  into  the  second 
grade  of  territorial  government,"  and  the  story  of  that  trans- 
action was  recounted  at  some  length. 

Knowing  that  such  a  petition  was  in  circulation,  the  supporters 
of  Harrison  introduced  in  the  legislative  session  of  1805  a  memo- 
rial to  congress,  praying  among  other  things  for  the  introduction 
of  slavery  and  protesting  against  the  proposed  division  of  the 
territory.  A  proposition  was  also  embodied  in  this  memorial 
for  the  admission  of  the  territory  as  a  state  before  division,  to- 
gether with  a  suggestion  that  division  when  it  should  come  might 
well  be  by  an  east  and  west  instead  of  a  north  and  south  line. 
Obviously  such  a  division  would  be  greatly  to  the  advantage  of 
Vincennes.  The  memorial  was  not  adopted  by  the  legislature 
but  was  sent  to  congress  as  a  "Petition  of  the  subscribers,  mem- 
bers of  the  Legislative  Council  and  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  Indiana  Territory,  and  constituting  a  majority  of  the  two 
Houses,  respectively."  The  five  members  whose  names  do  not 
appear  on  the  petition  were  the  councilors  and  representatives 
from  St.  Clair  and  Clark  counties.  Councilor  Menard  and  Repre- 


THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  189 

sentative  Fisher  of  Randolph,  both  followers  of  Harrison,  signed 
as  did  also  Representative  Jesse  B.  Thomas  of  Dearborn.  The 
name  of  another  Dearborn  man,  Benjamin  Chambers,  presi- 
dent of  the  council  appears;  but  he  afterwards  denied  that  he 
signed  the  petition.  Both  Thomas  and  Chambers,  if  Chambers 
signed,  probably  misrepresented  their  constituents.  The  people 
of  Dearborn  county  the  same  year  prepared  a  petition  to  con- 
gress complaining  of  the  advance  to  second  grade,  protesting 
against  the  indenture  law,  and  praying  that  they  might  be 
joined  to  the  state  of  Ohio.204 

These  three  documents  emanating  from  three  distinct  factions 
and  representing  the  views  of  three  distinct  sections  of  the  ter- 
ritory reached  congress  in  December,  1805,  and  on  the  eighteenth 
were  referred  to  a  select  committee,  of  which  the  delegate  from 
Indiana  territory  was  a  member.  A  month  later  a  number  of 
additional  documents  from  the  Illinois  counties  were  referred  to 
the  same  committee.  They  consisted  of  a  memorial  prepared 
by  "a  Committee  from  the  Several  Townships  in  the  Counties" 
and  the  minutes  of  the  committee,  including  a  series  of  resolu- 
tions. It  would  seem  that  the  anti-Harrison  faction  felt  some 
further  action  to  be  necessary  to  counteract  the  effect  of  the  leg- 
islative petition.  The  resolutions,  after  calling  for  a  division  of 
the  territory,  express  the  respect  of  the  people  for  the  ordinance 
and  call  attention  to  "the  Violation  thereof  By  the  late  act  of 
the  Legislature  of  this  Territory  Authorizing  the  importation 
of  Slaves,  and  involuntary  servitude  for  a  term  of  years."  From 
this  it  might  be  inferred  that  the  committee  was  hostile  to  the 
introduction  of  slaves,  but  the  succeeding  sentences  show  that 
this  was  for  political  effect  entirely.  "And  altho'  this  Committee 
entertain  no  doubt  but  that  the  Act  in  Question  will  render  serv- 
ice, by  adding  a  Spring  to  the  Growth  of  this  Country,  They 
express  the  disapprobation  of  a  people,  who  never  will  Consent 
to  a  Violation  of  that  ordinance,  for  this  privilege  of  slavery. 
When  Congress  should  deem  a  Change  of  the  Ordinance  expe- 
dient, they  will  Cheerfully  agree  to  the  measure."  The  memo- 
rial itself  sets  forth  many  reasons  for  desiring  a  division  of  the 

^Indiana  Historical  Society,  Publications,  2:476-483,  492-494^  American 
State  Papers,  Miscellaneous,  1:485;  Dunn,  Indiana,  336-341.  345- 


190  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

territory,  condemns  the  petition  of  the  members  of  the  legis- 
lature, and  asks  for  the  permission  to  hold  slaves  as  "promotive 
of  the  prosperity  of  this  Country."  No  mention  is  made  of  the 
indenture  law  in  the  memorial,  but  other  acts  of  the  legislature 
are  denounced  because  they  increased  the  power  of  the  gov- 
ernor. Accompanying  the  memorial  and  the  minutes  was  a 
census  estimate  by  Robert  Morrison,  who  had  taken  a  census 
in  1 80 1 ;  he  reckoned  the  population  of  St.  Clair  and  Randolph 
counties  at  4,311. 

The  special  committee,  in  its  report  of  February  14,  1806,  to 
the  house  of  representatives,  opposed  the  admission  of  the  terri- 
tory as  a  state  before  the  division  and  also  the  proposals  for 
immediate  division,  but  favored  the  suspension  of  the  slavery 
article  for  ten  years.  No  action  was  ever  taken  on  the  report, 
but  it  was  clear  that  congress  would  never  authorize  the  admis- 
sion of  the  territory  as  a  single  state.  The  result  was  a  momen- 
tary truce  between  the  two  proslavery  factions  in  the  legisla- 
tive session  of  November,  1806,  and  the  adoption  by  unanimous 
vote  of  a  series  of  resolutions  asking  for  a  suspension  of  the 
"sixth  article."  Benjamin  Parke,  the  delegate  from  Indiana, 
was  chairman  of  the  committee  of  the  house  of  representatives, 
to  which  these  resolutions  were  referred;  and  on  February  12, 
1807,  he  presented  a  report  favoring  suspension  of  the  slavery 
article.  This  report  was  referred  to  the  committee  of  the  whole 
house  but  was  never  considered. 

Meanwhile  the  advocates  of  division  in  Illinois  were  continu- 
ing their  campaign  and  on  February  20,  1807,  another  memorial 
from  their  committee  was  referred  to  the  same  committee  of  the 
house  of  representatives  which  had  reported  on  the  legislative 
resolutions.  At  the  same  time  a  counter  petition  from  Ran- 
dolph county  was  received  which  denied  the  representative  char- 
acter of  the  Illinois  committee  and  opposed  division.  This  peti- 
tion bears  one  hundred  and  two  signatures,  but  nearly  all  the 
names  are  French  and  forty-two  are  signed  with  a  mark. 
Among  recognized  supporters  of  Harrison  who  signed  were  Dr. 
George  Fisher,  James  Gilbreath,  and  two  of  the  Menards.  Six 
days  after  receiving  these  petitions  the  committee  reported  to 


THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  191 

the  house  a  resolution  declaring  the  expediency  of  division.    This 
resolution  was  adopted,  but  no  further  action  followed. 

The  election  of  the  second  house  of  representatives  of  the 
Indiana  territorial  legislature  in  February,  1807,  showed  an  in- 
crease in  the  strength  of  the  factions  opposed  to  Harrison,  but 
all  three  of  the  Illinois  representatives  were  reflected.  At  the 
first  session  of  the  legislature,  in  August,  1807,  the  principal 
matters  of  interest  were  the  reelection  of  Parke  to  congress  and 
the  adoption  of  another  memorial  asking  for  the  suspension  of 
the  slavery  article.  Between  the  first  and  the  second  sessions 
of  the  second  territorial  legislature  the  political  situation 
changed  materially.  John  Rice  Jones,  member  of  the  council 
from  Knox  county,  broke  with  Harrison,  probably  on  a  matter 
of  patronage,  and  joined  the  opposition.  Menard  and  Hay 
resigned  from  the  council,  and  Fisher  and  Bond205  were  pro- 
moted to  their  places,  thus  necessitating  the  election  of  a  repre- 
sentative in  each  of  the  Illinois  counties.  These  elections  re- 
sulted, after  a  bitter  contest  between  the  factions,  in  victories  for 
the  anti-Harrison  party  in  both  cases,  the  successful  candidates 
being  Rice  Jones,  a  son  of  the  councilor,  in  Randolph,  and  John 
Messinger,  the  first  "Yankee"  in  Illinois  politics,  in  St.  Clair. 
As  a  result  of  these  changes  the  anti-Harrison  factions  had  a 
majority  in  the  legislative  session  of  1808  and  were  able  to 
effect  a  combination  on  the  question  of  division.  This  was 
possible  in  spite  of  their  radical  differences  on  the  slavery  issue 
because  the  elimination  of  the  Illinois  counties  would  in  all 
probability  give  the  antislavery  forces  a  majority  in  Indiana 
proper.  Early  in  the  session  resolutions  in  favor  of  division 
were  adopted  and  forwarded  to  congress,  but  it  took  several 
weeks  for  the  two  factions  to  agree  on  a  delegate  to  take  the 
place  of  Parke,  who  had  resigned.  The  man  finally  selected  was 
Jesse  B.  Thomas,  of  Dearborn  county,  who  pledged  himself  to 
work  for  division.  The  Harrison  men  supported  Michael 
Jones,  register  of  the  land  office  at  Kaskaskia,  possibly  with  the 


Bond  was  the  nephew  of  the  Shadrach  Bond  who  served  in  the 
legislature  of  the  Northwest  territory.  He  was  sometimes  known  as  "Shad- 
rach Bond,  Jr." 


192  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

object  of  inducing  the  Illinois  representatives  to  support  an  Illi- 
nois man,  but  Jones  received  only  three  of  the  ten  votes. 

Sometime  in  the  spring  of  1808  the  Illinois  advocates  of  di- 
vision had  prepared  three  petitions  to  congress  which  on  April 
16  were  referred  to  a  committee  of  the  house  of  representatives 
of  which  Parke  was  a  member.  The  first  of  these  petitions  points 
out  the  weakness  of  the  counter  petition  presented  in  1807,  as 
signed  by  so  large  a  proportion  of  illiterate  Frenchmen,  and  as- 
serts that  the  committee  which  signed  the  memorials  of  1806  and 
1807  was  truly  representative  of  the  sentiment  of  the  counties; 
the  second  contains  an  elaborate  series  of  charges  against  Gov- 
ernor Harrison  including  among  them  his  sanctioning  of  the  in- 
denture law  "which  may  properly  be  entitled  'A  Law  for  the 
Establishment  of  disguised  slavery  in  opposition  to  the  Na- 
tional Will';"  while  the  third  was  merely  a  brief  request  for 
division.  Inasmuch  as  the  names  of  John  Edgar  and  William 
Morrison  appear  at  the  head  of  the  signatures  to  the  second 
petition  it  is  clear  that  the  reference  to  the  indenture  law  was 
not  an  indication  of  antislavery  sentiment. 

Parke  failed  to  secure  a  favorable  report  on  these  petitions, 
although  he  had  agreed  to  support  the  division  movement,  and 
in  December,  1808,  they  were  referred  to  a  new  committee  ap- 
pointed to  enquire  into  the  expediency  of  dividing  the  Indiana 
territory,  and  headed  by  Jesse  B.  Thomas.  This  committee  had 
various  other  documents  before  it — the  legislative  resolution 
already  mentioned,  a  petition  from  the  grand  jury  of  St.  Clair 
county  praying  for  division,  presented  December  2,  depositions 
denying  their  signatures  from  men  whose  names  appeared  on 
the  petition  containing  the  attack  on  Harrison,  and  a  petition 
from  Harrison's  followers  in  Knox  county,  including  Benjamin 
Parke,  opposing  division.  Thomas  appears  to  have  had  little 
difficulty  in  securing  a  report  favorable  to  division,  and  the 
passage  of  an  act,  approved  February  9,  1809,  for  the  establish- 
ment of  the  territory  of  Illinois. 

From  the  foregoing  account  of  politics  in  Indiana  territory  it 
is  evident  that  there  were  in  Illinois  in  1809  two  parties  or  fac- 
tions which  had  been  working  at  cross  purposes  for  a  number  of 
years.  These  may  be  classified  as  the  Harrison  and  anti-Harri- 


AN  OLD-FASHIONED  BED 

[Original  owned  by  W.  O.  Converse,  Springfield] 


PIERRE  MENARD'S  HOME  AT  KASKASKIA 

[From  original  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 


THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  193 

son  parties,  the  former  comprising  most  of  the  holders  of  office 
and  the  latter  headed  by  a  number  of  men  of  considerable 
wealth  and  influence.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  great  majority  of  the 
people  owned  affiliations  with  either  of  the  factions  and  on  the 
rare  occasions  when  elections  were  held  the  voters  were  doubt- 
less influenced  as  much  by  the  personality  of  the  candidates  as 
by  their  party  alignments  or  their  positions  on  the  issues  of  the 
day.  In  the  struggle  over  division,  the  anti-Harrison  party  had 
been  victorious,  but  that  struggle  was  only  an  incident  in  the 
hostility  between  the  two  groups,  which  persisted  for  a  number 
of  years  and  exerted  an  appreciable  influence  upon  the  politics 
of  Illinois  territory. 

The  Ordinance  of  1787  again  formed  the  basis  of  the  con- 
stituent act  of  the  new  territory  and  for  the  third  time  the  people 
of  Illinois  found  themselves  under  the  rule  of  a  governor  and 
judges.208  The  faction  which  had  favored  division  apparently  ex- 
pected to  secure  the  offices,  and  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  who  as  dele- 
gate had  brought  about  the  separation,  did  succeed  in  securing 
one  of  the  judgeships  for  himself.  For  governor,  however,  the 
president  selected  Ninian  Edwards,  chief  justice  of  the  court  of 
appeals  of  Kentucky,  who  endeavored  to  hold  himself  aloof 
from  both  of  the  factions.  Both  of  the  other  judges  were  from 
outside  the  territory,  while  the  secretary  was  Nathaniel  Pope, 
also  of  Kentucky,  and  a  personal  and  political  friend  of  the  gov- 
ernor. Around  these  two  men  there  gradually  grew  up  a  new 
party  composed  largely  of  importations  but  receiving,  on  the 
whole,  more  supporters  from  the  ranks  of  the  old  anti-Harrison 
faction  than  from  those  of  their  opponents. 

Had  Edwards  accepted  the  suggestions  made  to  him  that 
none  but  advocates  of  division  should  be  appointed  to  office,  he 
would  doubtless  have  received  the  complete  support  of  the  anti- 
Harrison  men,  and  the  old  factions  would  have  been  continued 
as  the  "ins"  and  the  "outs."  With  reference  to  the  patronage, 
however,  the  governor  adopted  the  policy  of  refusing  to  remove 
men  who  were  giving  satisfactory  service  and  of  following  the 
wishes  of  the  people  concerned,  so  far  as  they  could  be  ascer- 
tained, in  such  appointments  as  were  made.  Thus  the  militia 

"""Thorpe,  Constitutions,  2  :g66. 


194  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

companies  were  allowed  to  select  their  own  officers,  and  civil  ap- 
pointments were  frequently  based  on  recommendations  or  peti- 
tions from  the  township  or  county.  Occasionally,  however,  per- 
sonal factions  played  a  part;  as  when  Benjamin  Stephenson,  a 
newcomer  from  Kentucky,  was  appointed  sheriff  of  Randolph 
county  in  iSoo,.207  Stephenson  was  soon  recognized  as  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Edwards  party  and  in  1814  was  sent  as  delegate 
to  congress,  a  position  which  enabled  him  to  secure  an  appoint- 
ment as  receiver  of  the  new  land  office  at  Edwardsville. 

For  the  first  three  years  of  the  territory  the  attorney  general- 
ship was  the  chief  piece  of  territorial  patronage  at  the  governor's 
disposal,  but  after  the  passage  to  second  grade  he  had  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  territorial  treasurer  and  an  auditor  of  public 
accounts  as  well.  In  1816  Edwards  appointed  to  the  latter  office 
Daniel  Pope  Cook  of  Kentucky,  a  young  nephew  of  Nathaniel 
Pope,  the  secretary.208  At  the  close  of  the  territorial  period  Cook 
was  a  close  personal  and  political  friend  of  the  governor  and  later 
became  his  son-in-law. 

The  principal  local  officers  in  1809,  all  of  whom  were  ap- 
pointed by  the  governor,  were  three  judges  and  a  clerk  of  the 
court  of  common  pleas,  sheriff,  coroner,  surveyor,  treasurer,  re- 
corder, and  as  many  justices  of  the  peace  as  might  be  needed  in 
each  of  the  counties.  By  the  Indiana  law  in  force  at  the  time  of 
the  division,  the  court  of  common  pleas  conducted  the  adminis- 
trative business  of  the  county,  heard  appeals  from  justices' 
courts,  and  had  original  jurisdiction  in  civil  and  criminal  cases, 
with  appeal  to  the  general  court  of  the  territory.  These  courts 
of  common  pleas  were  notoriously  inefficient  so  far  as  their 
judicial  functions  were  concerned,  for  the  compensation  was  too 
low  to  induce  men  trained  in  the  law  to  serve  as  judges ;  and  by 
a  series  of  laws  adopted  by  the  governor  and  judges  in  June 
and  July,  1809,  the  systems  of  judicature  and  local  administra- 
tion were  reorganized.  The  courts  of  common  pleas  were 
abolished.  Their  administrative  functions  were  transferred  to 
courts  made  up  of  the  justices  of  the  peace  of  the  county,  which 

"'Edwards,  History  of  Illinois,  28-41 ;  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  42-46, 
76 ;  James,  Territorial  Records,  8. 

.,  40. 


THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  195 

were  also  empowered  to  hear  appeals  from  decisions  of  indi- 
vidual justices  of  the  peace  in  cases  of  judgments  not  exceeding 
twenty  dollars.  All  other  jurisdiction  of  the  courts  of  common 
pleas,  both  civil  and  criminal,  was  transferred  to  the  "general 
court,"  composed  of  the  United  States  judges,  which  was  re- 
quired to  hold  two  terms  annually  in  each  of  the  two  counties. 
This  simple  system  was  doubtless  satisfactory  to  all  parties  con- 
cerned, so  long  as  the  amount  of  litigation  was  small  and  there 
were  only  two  counties.  In  January,  1811,  however,  possibly  in 
anticipation  of  the  increase  in  the  number  of  counties  which 
came  the  following  year,  the  governor  and  judges  passed  an  act 
restoring  the  courts  of  common  pleas  in  the  place  of  the  county 
courts  made  up  of  justices,  but  from  the  phraseology  of  the  act 
it  would  appear  that  the  jurisdiction  over  civil  and  criminal  cases 
transferred  to  the  general  court  in  1809  was  not  at  this  time  re- 
stored to  the  courts  of  common  pleas.*09 

The  advance  of  Illinois  to  the  second  grade  of  territorial  gov- 
ernment took  place  in  1812,  apparently  without  any  opposition. 
As  had  been  the  case  with  Indiana  territory  the  governor  was 
authorized  to  make  the  change  whenever  convinced  that  a  ma- 
jority of  the  freeholders  desired  it.  On  March  14  he  issued  a 
proclamation  calling  for  a  vote  on  the  question  on  the  second 
Monday  in  April.  The  result  of  the  election  was  favorable,  and 
in  the  normal  course  of  events  a  restricted  form  of  popular  gov- 
ernment would  have  been  established  in  Illinois  similar  to  that 
set  up  in  the  northwest  territory  in  1798  and  in  Indiana  in  1805. 
A  strong  sentiment  had  been  developing,  however,  especially  in 
the  west,  in  favor  of  greater  participation  by  the  people  in  their 
governments.  Several  of  the  state  constitutions  recently  adopted 
had  dropped  all  property  qualifications  for  suffrage;  and  con- 
gress, by  an  act  of  1809,  had  liberalized  the  government  of  In- 
diana territory  to  the  extent  of  providing  for  the  election  of  the 
delegate  and  the  councilors  by  the  people,  although  the  suffrage 
qualification  remained  unchanged. 

In  Illinois  the  restriction  of  suffrage  and  office  holding  to  free- 
holders would  have  been  especially  objectionable  in  1812,  for 

*"Alvord,  Laws  of  the  Territory,  2-6,  28. 


196  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

there  were  no  sales  of  land  until  1814  and  the  great  majority  of 
the  inhabitants  were  squatters  waiting  patiently  for  the  oppor- 
tunity to  purchase  the  land  on  which  they  had  located.  On  the 
very  day  on  which  he  issued  the  proclamation  for  the  election, 
Governor  Edwards  wrote  a  long  letter  to  Colonel  Richard  M. 
Johnson,  congressman  from  Kentucky,  explaining  the  situation 
and  asking  for  his  assistance  in  securing  an  act  removing  the 
property  qualification  for  suffrage  and  providing  for  the  election 
of  the  delegate  by  popular  vote.  Should  the  provisions  of  the 
ordinance  remain  in  force,  he  claimed,  a  majority  of  the  present 
freeholders,  who  constituted  less  than  one-tenth  of  the  male  pop- 
ulation of  voting  age,  would  be  able  to  control  the  government 
for  at  least  five  years.  The  establishment  of  new  counties,  more- 
over, would  be  hampered  by  the  impossibility  of  finding  men 
with  requisite  qualifications  to  represent  them  in  the  legislature. 
Two  weeks  later,  March  30,  Edwards  transmitted  to  the 
speaker  of  the  house  of  representatives  two  petitions  numerously 
signed,  praying  for  the  extension  of  the  suffrage  and  the  privi- 
lege of  electing  the  delegate  by  popular  vote.210  One  of  these 
petitions  from  "Inhabitants  of  the  Land  district  East  of  Kaskas- 
kia,"  in  which  the  squatters  comprised  practically  the  whole 
population,  rehearsed  the  arguments  presented  in  Edwards'  let- 
ter to  Johnson.  The  other,  from  "citizens  of  the  Territory,"  was 
signed  by  many  of  the  leading  residents  of  Kaskaskia.  Colonel 
Johnson  secured  prompt  action  by  congress,  and  on  May  20  the 
president  approved  a  law  which  enabled  the  people  of  Illinois 
to  establish  the  most  democratic  form  of  territorial  government 
to  be  found  in  the  United  States  at  that  time.  By  the  terms  of 
this  act  suffrage  was  granted  to  all  free  white  males,  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  who  had  paid  a  county  or  territorial  tax,  no 
matter  how  small,  and  had  resided  in  the  territory  one  year.  It 
was  further  provided  that  the  five  councilors  should  be  elected 
in  five  districts  to  be  designated  by  the  governor,  and  finally  the 
delegate  to  congress  was  to  be  elected  by  the  people  instead  of 
by  the  legislature. 

""Edwards,  History  of  Illinois,  306-309.     The  original  of  this  letter  and 
the  petitions  noted  in  the  following  paragraph,  are  in  the  House  Files. 


THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  197 

On  September  14,  1812,  Governor  Edwards  issued  two  im- 
portant proclamations.  The  first  of  these  established  three  new 
counties,  Madison,  Gallatin,  and  Johnson,  making  five  in  all,  to 
serve  as  the  districts  for  the  five  members  of  the  council.  The 
second  proclamation  made  provision  for  an  election  to  be  held 
October  8-10,  for  delegate,  members  of  the  council,  and  rep- 
resentatives. Two  representatives  each  were  assigned  to  St. 
Clair  and  Gallatin  counties  and  one  each  to  the  other  three.  The 
returns  of  this  election  are  not  known  to  be  in  existence,  but 
Shadrach  Bond,  who  had  been  both  representative  and  councilor 
in  the  Indiana  territorial  legislature  before  the  division,  with 
leanings  toward  the  Harrison  party,  was  elected  delegate  to  con- 
gress. Apparently  there  was  some  opposition  to  his  election,  for 
on  November  n  a  petition  from  Benjamin  M.  Piatt,  attorney 
general  of  the  territory  and  an  appointee  of  Governor  Edwards, 
was  presented  to  congress  "complaining  of  the  undue  election" 
of  Bond  and  praying  for  an  investigation.  No  investigation 
appears  to  have  followed  and  Bond  took  his  seat  on  December 
3,  1812. 

Aside  from  the  patronage  the  only  political  issue  of  a  general 
nature  during  the  existence  of  Illinois  territory  had  to  do  with 
the  judiciary  system.  As  has  already  been  seen,  several  changes 
were  made  in  this  system  during  the  period  when  the  governor 
and  judges  had  complete  control.  With  the  assembling  of  the 
first  territorial  legislature  on  November  25,  1812,  the  question 
came  before  the  representatives  of  the  people.  The  establish- 
ment of  the  three  new  counties  made  some  readjustment  neces- 
sary, and  the  outcome  was  the  complete  restoration  to  the  courts 
of  common  pleas  of  the  jurisdiction  which  they  had  exercised 
under  the  laws  of  Indiana  territory.  This  of  course  relieved  the 
general  court  of  the  local  work  which  had  been  imposed  upon  it 
in  1809  and  in  fact  left  it  with  very  little  to  do,  a  situation  which 
appears  to  have  been  quite  satisfactory  to  the  judges.  All  of 
them  were  absent  from  the  territory  for  long  periods  of  time 
much  to  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  people.  "The  grand  jury  of 
St.  Clair  and  Randolph  counties,"  wrote  Bond  to  Edwards, 
August  17,  1813,  "presented  all  our  judges  for  non-residence 
and  non-attendance,  but  before  they  [the  presentments]  arrived 


198  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

judge  Stuart  resigned."  This  resignation  did  not,  however,  im- 
prove conditions,  for  William  Sprigg,  who  was  appointed  to 
take  the  place  of  Stuart,  absolutely  refused  to  recognize  the 
right  of  the  legislature  to  regulate  the  court.  On  February  23, 
1814,  Bond  wrote  that  he  was  "trying  to  get  a  law  passed  to 
compel  our  judges  to  perform  such  duties  as  our  Legislature 
have  required  of  them."211 

Two  years  experience  with  the  courts  of  common  pleas  ap- 
parently convinced  the  people  of  the  necessity  of  having  trained 
judges,  and  in  December,  1814,  the  legislature  reversed  its  action 
of  1812.  The  court  of  common  pleas  was  again  abolished  and 
its  administrative  functions  transferred  to  a  county  court  of 
three  men,  while  the  United  States  judges  were  organized  as  a 
supreme  court  and  directed  to  hold  two  courts  annually  in  each 
county  and  a  court  of  appeals  at  the  capital.  Upon  the  former 
devolved  the  judicial  functions  formerly  exercised  by  the  courts 
of  common  pleas.  It  was  expected  that  the  judges  would  divide 
up  the  counties  into  circuits  and  hold  the  local  courts  individually, 
but  these  were  to  be  termed  sessions  of  the  supreme  court  in  or- 
der to  avoid  objections  which  the  judges  had  raised  to  any 
breaking  up  of  the  unity  of  their  court.  There  was  nothing  in 
the  act  to  prevent  all  or  several  of  the  judges  from  holding  court 
jointly  in  each  county  if  they  so  desired,  as  had  been  done  when 
there  were  only  two  counties.  Judges  Thomas  and  Sprigg, 
however,  at  once  addressed  a  letter  to  the  legislature  protesting 
against  the  change  and  denying  the  authority  of  the  legislature 
over  them.  They  took  the  position  that  the  supreme  court  estab- 
lished by  the  act  was  a  new  court  to  which  "the  court  established 
by  the  ordinance"  was  to  be  subjected,  and  asserted  that  "an  ap- 
peal from  the  same  court  to  the  same  is  a  solecism." 

The  legislature  forwarded  the  letter  to  Governor  Edwards 
and  requested  of  him  an  opinion  upon  the  subject,  which  he  fur- 
nished at  great  length  in  a  communication  of  December  12,  1814. 
The  governor  explained  that  the  words  of  the  ordinance  "are 
that  'there  shall  be  appointed  a  court,  to  consist  of  three  judges, 
who  shall  have  a  common  law  jurisdiction,'  but  how,  when  or 

""House  Files,  March  14,  30,  1812;  Laws  of  1812,  p.  15-16,  46-48;  Pope's 
Digest,  2:311-312;  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  103,  no. 


THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  199 

where  that  jurisdiction  is  to  be  exercised  is  not  pointed  out,  and 
therefore  it  is  subjected  to  the  modification  and  direction  of  the 
Territorial  Legislature."212  The  judges  still  refused  to  acknowl- 
edge the  validity  of  the  law,  and  on  December  21  the  legislature 
forwarded  all  the  documents  to  congress  together  with  a  memo- 
rial praying  for  relief.  One  sentence  of  this  memorial  reads: 
"There  being  no  intermixture  of  party  spirit  or  individual  hos- 
tility with  this  proceeding,  the  objections  of  the  Judges  to  exe- 
cuting the  law  doubtless  arise,  more  from  a  conviction  in  their 
own  minds  of  the  want  of  Power  in  the  Legislature  to  pass  it, 
than  from  any  indisposition  on  their  part  to  perform  the  duties 
therein  assigned  to  them."  This  was  probably  a  bit  of  subtle 
sarcasm,  for  the  judges  were  certainly  not  anxious  to  assume  any 
additional  burdens  and  the  politicians  were  certainly  grouping 
themselves  into  supporters  and  opponents  of  Governor  Edwards, 
of  whom  the  former  upheld  the  judiciary  law  and  the  latter 
supported  the  judges.  Together  with  these  documents  in  the 
house  files  is  a  long  letter  from  Edwards,  dated  January  2,  1815, 
and  recounting  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  validity  of  the  law. 

The  result  of  this  appeal  to  congress  was  the  passage  of  an 
act  "regulating  and  defining  the  duties  of  the  United  States 
Judges  for  the  territory  of  Illinois"  which  required  them  to  hold 
circuit  courts  in  each  county.  That  this  victory  of  the  Edwards 
party  was  not  won  without  opposition  is  evident  from  Benjamin 
Stephenson's  review  of  his  work  as  a  delegate  in  congress,  in 
which  he  says:  "With  regard  to  our  judiciary  system,  I  should 
at  all  times,  have  been  happy  to  see  such  a  one  established,  as 
would,  if  possible,  have  been  agreeable  to  the  judges,  and  con- 
venient to  the  people.  But  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  oppose,  and  I  did 
oppose  with  success,  the  attempt  that  was  made  when  this  sub- 
ject was  before  the  last  congress,  to  destroy  the  circuit  system, 
and  to  have  a  general  court  to  sit  in  two  or  three  places  only."218 

Just  at  this  point  in  the  fight,  Griswold,  the  one  judge  who 
had  not  actively  opposed  the  territorial  law,  died ;  and  the  efforts 
of  the  two  factions  to  get  their  respective  candidates  appointed 

'"A  Law  Establishing  a  Supreme  Court  and  Documents  (Kaskaskia, 
1814)  ;  Edwards,  History  of  Illinois,  86-92. 

""Statutes  at  Large,  3  -.237-239 ;  Intelligencer,  June  19,  1816. 


200  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

throw  light  on  the  alignment  of  men  in  1815,  particularly  in  Gal- 
latin  county.  Griswokl  died  in  Shawneetown,  August  2 1 ;  and 
four  days  later  a  meeting  was  held  there  at  which  a  petition  was 
circulated  in  favor  of  Thomas  Towles  of  Kentucky  as  his  suc- 
cessor. The  men  present  at  this  meeting  were  Towles  himself, 
Leonard  White,  Benjamin  Talbott,  Thomas  Sloo,  and  John 
Caldwell.  The  opposition  at  once  put  up  Jeptha  Hardin,  a  Ken- 
tuckian,  who  had  been  practicing  law  in  Gallatin  county  since 
1813  and  a  man  who,  according  to  John  Reynolds  "possessed  a 
strong  original  mind,  and  seemed  to  disdain  scholastic  educa- 
tion." Hardin's  chief  support  came  from  Judge  Thomas;  and 
his  political  manager  in  the  campaign  appears  to  have  been 
Joseph  M.  Street,  clerk  of  both  the  county  and  circuit  courts  of 
Gallatin  county.  Towles,  however  secured  the  appointment. 

The  victorious  faction  at  Shawneetown  in  this  contest  was 
composed  largely  of  men  connected  with  the  United  States  saline, 
and  in  that  way  closely  associated  with  Edwards,  who  had  been 
appointed  superintendent  of  the  saline  in  1809.  Leonard  White 
was  United  States  agent  at  the  saline,  while  Sloo  and  Caldwell 
were  register  and  receiver  of  the  Shawneetown  land  office  and 
thus  concerned  with  the  reservation.  Towles  himself,  accord- 
ing to  information  given  to  Hardin  by  Caldwell,  "was  at  the  lick" 
with  White  and  Talbott  when  Griswold  died,  and  may  have  been 
connected  with  the  saline  in  a  private  capacity.  The  men  op- 
posed to  Towles  were  also  opposed  to  the  management  of  the 
saline,  and  in  1816  they  sent  two  petitions  to  congress  against 
the  renewal  of  the  lease  of  John  Bate.  Street's  name  is  first 
on  one  of  these  and  Hardin's  on  the  other.  It  would  seem  prob- 
able, therefore,  that  the  saline  was  a  considerable  factor  in  Illi- 
nois politics.  It  added  a  business  interest  to  the  struggles  over 
the  patronage. 

Among  the  members  of  the  anti-Edwards  faction  at  this  time 
was  Elias  Kent  Kane  of  Kaskaskia,  one  of  the  most  promising 
of  the  younger  lawyers,  and  a  "keen,  shrewd,  talented  politician." 
Born  in  New  York  and  educated  at  Yale,  he  began  practice  in 
Illinois  in  1814  when  only  twenty  years  of  age.  From  the  first 
he  seems  to  have  been  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  Judges  Thomas 
and  Sprigg,  and  Street  considered  him  a  person  of  influence  in 
1815.  Another  member  of  this  faction  and  an  intimate  friend 


NINIAN  EDWARDS 

[From  original  painting  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society 


THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  201 

of  Kane  was  John  McLean,  a  young  Kentuckian,  who  came  to 
Shawneetown  in  1815  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  the  following 
year.  Mention  should  also  be  made  of  Thomas  C.  Browne,  an- 
other lawyer  from  Kentucky,  who  located  in  Shawneetown  in 
1812  and  who  threw  in  his  lot  with  the  Edwards  men.  In  1815 
Browne  was  one  of  the  leaders  in  an  attempt  to  deprive  Street 
of  his  position  as  clerk  of  the  circuit  court. 

The  usual  alignment  of  party  leaders  during  the  territorial 
period  runs  Edwards,  Pope,  Cook,  White,  and  Browne  on  one 
side  and  Bond,  Thomas,  Michael  Jones,  Kane,  and  McLean  on 
the  other.  This  is  derived  from  a  statement  of  John  Reynolds, 
who  began  to  take  an  interest  in  politics  about  1818,  and  it  is  in 
the  main  correct.214  The  Michael  Jones  referred  to  may  have 
been  the  young  lawyer  who  was  located  in  Shawneetown  as  early 
as  1812  and  who  played  a  prominent  part  in  politics  after  the  ad- 
mission of  the  state.  He  was  a  half  brother  of  Jesse  B.  Thomas 
and  a  brother-in-law  of  Hardin  so  that  his  family  affiliations 
were  with  the  anti-Edwards  party.  There  was  another  Michael 
Jones,  however,  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  who  came  to  Kas- 
kaskia  in  1804  as  register  of  the  land  office,  and  held  his  position 
there  throughout  the  territorial  period.  He  had  been  the  candi- 
date of  the  Harrison  faction  against  Thomas  for  delegate  from 
Indiana  territory  in  1808  and  served  for  a  time  as  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  the  militia,  from  which  position  Edwards  removed  him 
in  1811.  There  was  bitter  feeling  between  him  and  the  gov- 
ernor over  the  settlement  of  land  claims  also,  and  he  could  doubt- 
less be  included  as  a  member  of  the  faction  opposed  to  the  gov- 
ernor.215 

a*Street  to  Kane,  March  26,  1815  and  Hardin  to  Kane,  September  29, 
1815,  in  Chicago  Historical  Society  manuscripts;  Lippincott,  "Early  Days  in 
Madison  County,"  no.  13 ;  Reynolds,  Pioneer  History,  330 ;  Reynolds,  My 
Own  Times,  210. 

""Illinois  Gazette,  August  5,  1826;  James,  Territorial  Records,  18,  28; 
Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  71-78;  Reynolds,  Pioneer  History,  351. 

The  secondary  writers  have  all  treated  these  two  men  as  one,  the  usual 
statement  being  that  he  moved  from  Kaskaskia  to  Shawneetown  in  1814. 
The  conclusion  that  there  were  two  men  of  this  name  was  first  based  on 
a  comparison  of  signatures  and  on  a  cumulation  of  circumstantial  evidence. 
Finally,  however,  positive  proof  was  found  in  a  letter  from  Edward  Humph- 
reys, receiver  of  the  land  office  at  Kaskaskia,  to  the  commissioner  of  the 
general  land  office,  dated  November  30,  1822,  which  announces  the  death 
of  "Col.  Mich.  Jones  Regr.  of  the  Land  Office  at  this  place"  on  the  twenty- 
sixth.  Land  records  in  the  auditor's  office,  Springfield. 


202  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

The  placing  of  Bond's  name  first  in  Reynolds'  list  has  led 
many  local  historians  to  speak  of  the  opposition  to  Edwards  as 
the  Bond  party.  The  real  leaders  of  this  faction,  however,  at 
the  close  of  the  territorial  period  were  Thomas  and  Kane;  and 
there  is  no  strictly  contemporary  evidence  to  indicate  that  Bond 
was  counted  as  a  member  of  the  party  until,  as  first  governor  of 
the  state,  he  fell  under  the  influence  of  Kane,  the  secretary  of 
state.  Bond  had  been  considered  a  member  of  the  Harrison 
faction  in  the  Indiana  territorial  legislature,  and  in  1809  he  ob- 
jected strenuously  to  Edwards'  proposition  that  he  go  into  an 
election  with  William  B.  Whiteside  for  the  position  of  colonel 
of  the  militia,  then  held  by  Bond.  Whiteside  received  the  ap- 
pointment. In  1812,  however,  as  has  been  seen,  Bond  was 
elected  delegate  to  congress,  and  his  letters  to  the  governor  dur- 
ing his  term  indicate  that  at  that  time  they  were  working  in  per- 
fect harmony.  Bond  came  back  from  Washington  in  1814  with 
an  appointment  as  receiver  of  the  land  office  at  Kaskaskia.  Two 
years  later  when  Nathaniel  Pope  resigned  the  secretaryship  to 
run  for  the  position  of  delegate  to  congress,  Bond  secured  Pope's 
support  for  the  position  of  secretary  and  wrote  confidentially 
to  the  governor:  "I  now  ask,  and  flatter  myself,  that  you  will 
support  my  view."216  The  appointment  went  to  Captain  Joseph 
B.  Phillips  of  Tennessee,  who  was  the  first  chief  justice  of  the 
supreme  court  of  the  state  and  the  candidate  of  the  Thomas 
and  Kane  party  for  governor  in  1822,  but  there  is  no  evidence 
that  Edwards  was  in  any  way  responsible. 

The  truth  seems  to  be  that  Bond  and  many  of  the  other  men, 
such  as  Pierre  Menard  and  Dr.  George  Fisher,  who  had  been 
prominent  in  politics  during  the  period  when  Illinois  was  a  part 
of  Indiana  territory,  held  aloof  from  both  of  the  new  factions 
and  relied  upon  their  popularity  with  the  voters  for  political 
preferment.  Menard  represented  Randolph  county  in  all  three 
sessions  of  the  legislature  of  Illinois  territory,  serving  as  presi- 
dent of  the  council,  while  Fisher  was  the  representative  from  the 
same  county  and  speaker  of  the  house  in  the  first  and  third 
legislatures.  In  1816  these  two  men  had  only  to  announce  their 

"'Lippincott,  "Early  Days  in  Madison  County,"  no.  13;  Washburne,  Ed- 
wards Papers,  42-46,  93-98,  101-117,  126,  150. 


THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  203 

candidacy  in  order  to  assure  their  elections,  and  the  same  ap- 
pears to  have  been  true  of  Bond  whenever  he  aspired  to  an  elec- 
tive office. 

On  the  whole,  it  would  appear  that  the  political  factions  dur- 
ing the  last  years  of  Illinois  territory  may  be  characterized  as 
combinations  of  men  for  the  purpose  of  holding  or  seeking  ap- 
pointive offices,  either  local  or  territorial.  The  people  as  a  whole 
played  little  part  in  politics,  for  the  only  elections  were  those  for 
delegate  and  members  of  the  legislature  every  two  years.  It  is 
doubtful  if  any  considerable  number  of  voters  considered  them- 
selves as  members  of  either  of  the  political  parties,  and  in  the 
elections  they  were  concerned  less  with  questions  of  policy  re- 
garding the  territory  as  a  whole  than  with  what  the  representa- 
tives whom  they  sent  to  the  legislature  could  procure  for  their 
particular  county.  This  local  interest  was  often  a  desire  for  a 
dam,  a  ferry,  a  road,  or  some  other  public  improvement ;  and  in 
1818  the  legislature  was  satirized  as  "discussing,  whether  nature 
had  designed  such  and  such  rivers  to  be  navigable  or  not."  In 
1816  the  important  issue  of  the  judiciary  system  was  pend- 
ing, but  the  fight  in  St.  Clair  county  centered  around  the  purely 
local  issue  of  the  division  of  the  county,  and  the  candidates 
pledged  themselves  to  give  primary  consideration  to  local  inter- 
ests. In  Randolph,  as  has  been  noted,  the  popular  candidates 
-had  little  opposition,  regardless  of  their  stand  on  territorial  is- 
sues, and  such  seems  to  have  been  the  situation  wherever  no  local 
issue  was  at  stake.217 

The  action  of  the  third  territorial  legislature  on  the  judiciary 
question  illustrates  the  lack  of  political  convictions  on  the  part 
of  the  members  and  the  absence  of  strict  party  affiliation.218 

™  Intelligencer,  September  9,  1818,  July  9,  24,  1816. 

*"The'list  of  representatives  in  this  legislature  in  the  Illinois  Blue  Book, 
I9I3-I9J4I  P-  133.  is  inaccurate  and  incomplete.  It  is  supplemented  in  the 
following  list  from  a  vote  reported  in  the  Intelligencer  of  December  25, 
1817.  All  of  these  men  were  elected  in  1816  and  all  were  present  at  the 
second  session.  Davenport  may  not  have  attended  the  first  session  but  there 
is  evidence  that  all  the  others  were  present,  in  the  issues  of  the  Intelligencer 
for  December  4,  n,  18,  25,  1816,  and  January  22,  1817.  George  Fisher 
(Speaker),  Randolph;  C.  R.  Matheny,  St.  Clair;  William  H.  Bradsby,  St. 
Clair ;  Nathan  Davis,  Jackson ;  M.  S.  Davenport,  Gallatin ;  Joseph  Palmer, 
Johnson ;  Seth  Card,  Edwards ;  Samuel  Omelveny,  Pope ;  Willis  Hargrave, 

White ;  John  Mordock,  Monroe ;  Gilham,  Madison ;  Edward  N.  Cullom, 

Crawford. 


204  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

The  United  States  law  of  1815  having  proved  unsatisfactory  in 
some  of  its  details,  the  legislature  of  1816  asked  congress  to 
make  certain  changes  and  also  to  give  to  the  legislature  the 
power  to  make  such  changes  as  might  be  required  in  the  future. 
This  request  was  granted  by  a  law  of  April  29,  1816,  but  un- 
fortunately the  phraseology  of  the  act  was  such  that  the  judges 
could  claim  that  it  would  be  of  no  effect  after  the  close  of  the 
following  session  of  the  legislature,  although  the  obvious  intent 
of  congress  was  merely  to  limit  those  parts  of  the  law  making 
specific  provisions  for  the  time  being  and  to  leave  the  legislature 
absolutely  free  to  regulate  the  judicial  system  of  the  territory 
in  the  future.  The  interpretation  of  the  judges,  if  accepted, 
would  have  had  the  effect  of  throwing  the  question  back  into 
the  same  situation  as  before  the  passage  of  the  United  States 
law  of  1815,  with  only  the  brief  and  doubtful  language  of  the 
Ordinance  of  1787  to  fall  back  upon. 

At  the  first  session  of  the  third  territorial  legislature,  a  com- 
mittee of  the  house  on  the  "state  of  the  Judiciary"  reported  a 
bill  "to  establish  circuit  courts  of  their  own  creation;  to  give  a 
salary  of  about  $800 — to  have  two  judges;  and  to  hold  three 
courts  in  each  county."  This  bill,  if  enacted,  would  have  relieved 
the  United  States  judges  of  circuit  work  entirely,  but  the  mem- 
bers of  the  legislature  felt  that  the  people  of  the  territory  should 
not  be  called  upon  to  pay  for  service  which  they  had  a  right  to 
demand  of  the  United  States  judges.  Another  bill  was  substi- 
tuted, therefore,  which  practically  continued  the  system  then  in 
force  under  the  United  States  statute,  and  this  was  enacted  into 
a  law.  Judges  Thomas  and  Towles  held  courts  in  their  circuits 
in  accordance  with  this  act  although  the  former  expressed  doubts 
of  its  validity,  but  Judge  Sprigg  absolutely  refused  to  recognize 
the  act  on  the  ground  that  the  United  States  law  had  expired 
and  that  the  territorial  act  was  a  violation  of  the  ordinance.  In 
March  when  he  should  have  been  making  his  first  round  of 
counties,  he  was  on  his  way  to  Maryland.  He  returned  to  the 
territory  in  October  and  shortly  afterward  announced  his  re- 
fusal to  obey  the  law.  As  a  result  the  people  of  the  circuit  as- 
signed to  him  were  deprived  of  facilities  for  the  determination 


Two  FLINTLOCK  DUELING  PISTOLS 


A  BEAR  TRAP.    THE  PISTOL  WAS  LOADED,  THE  BARBS  PUSHED  TOGETHER 

AND  BAITED  WITH  MEAT  AND  THE  HANDLE  FASTENED  TO  A  TREE  OR  STAKE.      WHEN 

THE  BEAR  PULLED  AT  THE  BAIT,  BOTH  BULLETS  WERE  FIRED,  AND  THE  BARBS  SPREAD 

OUT,   CATCHING  HIM  IN  THE   MOUTH   OR   THROAT 


GUN  USED  BY  WESTERN  TRAPPERS 
[Originals  of  these  weapons  in  Missouri  Historical  Society,  St.  Louis] 


THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  205 

of  lawsuits,  and  criminals  went  untried.219 

When  the  same  legislature  met  for  its  second  session  in  Decem- 
ber, 1817,  it  was  obvious  that  something  must  be  done  to  relieve 
the  situation.  Representatives  Bradsby  and  Matheny  of  St. 
Clair  opposed  any  concession  to  the  judges  and  advocated  "an 
appeal  to  that  tribunal  which  is  competent  for  that  purpose." 
This  would  have  meant  more  delay,  however,  and  the  majority 
of  the  legislature  appears  to  have  been  governed  by  expediency. 
The  first  bill  considered  would  have  reestablished  the  old  courts 
of  common  pleas  but  this  was  killed  in  committee  of  the  whole 
house  and  a  measure  was  adopted  similar  to  the  one  which  failed 
to  pass  in  the  first  session.  This  provided  for  two  circuit  judges 
appointed  by  the  governor,  with  salaries  of  a  thousand  dollars  a 
year-  The  United  States  judges  were  relieved  of  all  circuit  duty 
and  required  to  hold  only  four  general  courts  a  year,  two  at 
Kaskaskia  and  two  at  Shawneetown.  "The  object  of  this  act," 
commented  the  editors  of  the  Intelligencer,  "is  to  remove  the  in- 
conveniences under  which  the  people  labor,  in  consequence  of 
the  refusal  of  one  of  the  U.  States  Judges  to  act,  and  because  it 
is  believed  to  be  a  better  system  than  to  allow  the  same  Judges 
to  hold  courts  of  original  jurisdiction,  and  of  appellate  jurisdic- 
tion also."220  That  the  legislature  was  not  entirely  subservient 
to  the  judges  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  it  adopted  resolutions 
requesting  the  delegate  in  congress  to  lay  before  the  house  of 
representatives  charges  against  Judge  Sprigg  for  his  refusal  to 
hold  courts  as  required  by  the  territorial  law  and  for  absenting 
himself  from  the  territory  "for  an  unreasonable  time."221 

'"Street  to  Kane,  March  31,  1817,  in  Chicago  Historical  Society  manu- 
scripts, 52:167;  Intelligencer,  December  4,  n,  18,  1816,  October  23,  Novem- 
ber 6,  1817. 

^Intelligencer,  January  13,  1818.  See  also,  Ibid.,  December  25,  1817; 
Laws  of  Illinois  Territory,  1817-1818,  p.  90-98.  This  act  also  restored  the 
"Justices'  Court"  composed  of  all  the  justices  of  the  peace  in  each  of  the 
counties,  such  as  had  existed  from  1809  to  1811. 

"^Intelligencer,  January  13,  1818.  According  to  Edwards,  History  of 
Illinois  (28),  Richard  Graham  was  appointed  judge  April  20,  1818.  If  this 
is  correct  Sprigg  must  either  have  resigned  or  have  been  removed.  At  the 
first  session  of  the  first  general  assembly  of  the  state  in  October,  1818,  he 
failed  in  an  attempt  to  secure  a  nomination  for  the  office  of  United  States 
district  judge  for  Illinois.  House  Journal,  I  general  assembly,  I  session,  28 


206  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

When  in  November,  1817,  the  question  of  advance  to  state- 
hood was  suddenly  thrust  before  the  people  of  Illinois,  the  polit- 
ical situation  may  be  summed  up  as  follows :  two  coteries  of  poli- 
ticians, the  one  led  by  Edwards  and  the  other  by  Thomas  and 
Kane,  were  opposing  each  other  in  a  contest  of  several  years 
standing  over  the  patronage  and  the  judiciary;  Menard,  Bond, 
and  others  of  the  old  established  politicians,  relying  on  their 
personal  popularity,  refused  to  align  themselves  with  either  of 
the  factions;  while  the  people,  a  simple  people  concerned  prin- 
cipally with  local  interests  and  the  advancement  of  material 
prosperity,  readily  gave  their  votes  to  any  man  who  had  won 
their  personal  liking.  Besides  these  there  was  a  small  band  of 
antislavery  men  watching  and  waiting  for  the  opportune  mo- 
ment in  which  to  free  Illinois  from  any  semblance  of  slavery. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   MOVEMENT   FOR   ADMISSION 

The  undemocratic  features  of  the  American  territorial  sys- 
tem have  frequently  proved  unpalatable  to  the  people  of  the 
territories.  Thus  the  house  of  representatives  of  Indiana  terri- 
tory on  October  n,  1808,  adopted  resolutions  requesting  con- 
gress to  permit  the  delegate  and  members  of  the  council  to  be 
elected  by  the  people  and  to  repeal  "that  part  of  the  Ordinance 
which  vests  in  the  Governor  of  this  Territory  an  absolute  nega- 
tive on  all  acts;  and  also  that  part  which  confers  on  him  the 
power  of  proroguing  and  dissolving  the  General  Assembly."222 
As  has  been  already  noted  congress  passed  an  act  in  1809  grant- 
ing the  first  plea  of  the  petitioners,  but  leaving  the  powers  of 
the  governor  unchanged. 

The  still  more  democratic  form  of  government  allowed  to 
Illinois  territory  by  the  act  of  1812  was  unsatisfactory  to  the 
members  of  the  legislature,  and  in  1814  a  memorial  was  drawn 
up  praying  for  the  repeal  of  the  clause  in  the  ordinance  which 
gave  the  governor  an  absolute  veto.  "To  freemen,"  it  reads, 
"this  clause  wears  the  aspect  of  slavery — vesting  our  Executive 
with  a  Despotism  that  can  frustrate  the  most  deliberate  and 
well  digested  measures  of  our  Council  and  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. .  .  .  The  good  people  of  this  Territory  have  the 
privilege,  the  trouble  and  the  vast  expense  of  electing  and  send- 
ing Representatives  in  a  Legislative  Capacity  to  convene  and  to 
consult  together  for  the  public  good  but  by  their  mutual  and 
most  elaborate  exertions  they  become  not  law-makers  but  only 

"'House  Files,  October  19,  1808. 

(207) 


208  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

recommenders  of  laws."228  Two  years  later,  January  13,  1816, 
another  memorial,  much  more  moderate  in  tone  but  to  the  same 
effect  was  sent  to  congress.  This  asked  not  only  that  the  execu- 
tive veto  be  abolished,  but  also  that  the  legislature  might  have  a 
part  in  the  appointive  power.  Congress  denied  the  request,  and 
the  issue  reappeared  in  the  campaign  of  the  following  summer. 
A  writer  in  the  Intelligencer,  who  signed  himself  "Aristides"  de- 
plored "the  colonial  and  degraded  state  of  this  country,  under 
the  government  of  the  Ordinance,  that  accursed  badge  of  des- 
potism, which  withholds  from  the  people,  the  only  true  source 
of  all  power,  a  participation  in  those  rights  guaranteed  by  the 
constitutions  of  every  state  in  the  union."  The  voters  of  the 
territory  were  urged  to  see  to  it  that  the  delegate  to  be  elected 
should  "advocate  a  redress  of  colonial  grievances,  and  honestly 
exert  his  influence  to  obtain  that  change  (so  long  withholden) 
which  will  place  us  on  that  proud  eminence  of  freemen."224 

Apparently  "Aristides"  had  in  mind  merely  a  modification  of 
the  territorial  government  for  the  time  being;  but  he  went  on 
to  state  that  "the  present  rapid  influx  of  population,  that  grow- 
ing and  prosperous  state  of  the  country,  justifies  the  belief  that 
it  will  not  be  more  than  3  or  4  years  before  we  will  burst  the 
chains  of  despotism,  by  which  we  are  now  bound,  and  stand  a 
sovereign  and  independent  state."  The  people  were  urged, 
therefore,  "to  begin  to  think  and  talk  about  that  form^of  state 
government  that  so  soon  must  take  place." 

The  editors  of  the  Intelligencer  apparently  considered  that  "a 
redress  of  colonial  grievances"  could  come  only  with  transition 
to  statehood,  for  in  their  comment  on  the  communication  they 
declared  that  they  considered  "the  question  not  very  important 
at  present,  as  the  population  of  the  territory  will  not  in  all  prob- 
ability, within  the  time  for  which  the  present  delegate  is  to  be 
elected,  entitle  us  to  the  redress  alluded  to.  So  soon  as  the  pop- 
ulation is  sufficient  we  hope  that  those  evils  will  be  obviated  by 
a  state  government."225  There  is,  however,  no  evidence  that 

""Miscellaneous  Assembly  Papers,  December  19,  1814,  secretary  of  state's 
office. 

""Intelligencer,  August  21,  1816. 
"Ibid. 


THE  MOVEMENT  FOR  ADMISSION  209 

the  question  of  statehood  was  an  issue  in  the  election  of  this 
year,  when  Nathaniel  Pope  was  selected  to  represent  the  terri- 
tory in  congress. 

About  a  year  and  a  half  later,  in  November,  1817,  a  move- 
ment for  immediate  transition  to  statehood  was  suddenly  inau- 
gurated, and  the  man  who  was  responsible  was  Daniel  Pope 
Cook.  Cook,  who  at  this  time  was  only  twenty  years  old,  had 
been  appointed  auditor  of  public  accounts  by  the  governor  in 
January,  1816.  About  the  same  time  he  had  purchased  from 
Matthew  Duncan  the  only  newspaper  then  published  in  the  ter- 
ritory, The  Illinois  Herald,  and  changed  its  name  to  The  West- 
ern Intelligencer.  Nominally  he  had  continued  as  one  of  the 
editors  of  the  paper  until  October,  1817,  when  it  appeared  under 
the  names  of  Berry  and  Black  well,  each  of  whom  in  turn  had 
been  associated  with  Cook  in  its  management.226  In  February, 
1817,  Cook  had  gone  to  Washington,  expecting  to  return  in 
April,  but  while  there  he  was  offered  an  appointment  to  carry 
dispatches  to  John  Quincy  Adams  in  London  and  had  accepted 
in  the  hopes  that  a  sea  voyage  would  improve  his  health.227  Re- 
turning to  the  United  States  in  September,  he  had  remained  in 
Washington  a  few  weeks  on  the  lookout  for  a  political  opening. 
On  September  25,  he  wrote  to  Governor  Edwards :  "As  yet  I  do 
not  know  what  I  am  to  engage  in.  I  can  get  a  clerkship  in  the 
State  department  with  a  good  salary,  but  I  won't  go  into  it;  it 
is  too  confining.  I  shall  know  in  a  few  days  whether  I  go  as 
Secretary  of  Alabama  Territory  or  not.  The  President,  it  is 
feared,  has  made  up  his  mind ;  if  so,  I  shall  fail ;  there  is  no  situa- 
tion vacant  at  present  for  me  but  that."  Then  in  a  postscript  he 
added:  "I  am  not  yet  well.  May  it  not  be  better  for  me  to  re- 
turn to  Kaskaskia  and  wait  for  prospects  in  that  country  if  I 
don't  go  to  Alabama?"228 

""James,  Territorial  Records,  40;  Scott,  Newspapers  and  Periodicals,  211- 
212;  Intelligencer,  October  23,  1817. 

*2T\Vashburne,  Edwards  Papers,  128;  Cook  to  Edwards,  March  6,  1817, 
in  Chicago  Historical  Society  manuscripts,  49:303.  On  April  5,  Cook's  part- 
ner, Robert  Blackwell  was  appointed  auditor  in  his  place.  James,  Territorial 
Records,  47. 

^Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  135-141. 


210  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

Failing  to  get  the  appointment  desired,  Cook  returned  to  Illi- 
nois, arriving  in  Kaskaskia  on  November  18,  1817.  There,  in- 
stead of  waiting  for  "prospects,"  he  proceeded  to  make  them. 
Two  days  after  his  arrival  the  following  editorial  appeared  in 
the  Intelligencer:  "While  we  are  laboring  under  so  many  of 
the  grievances  of  a  territorial,  or  semi-monarchial  government, 
might  not  our  claims  to  a  state  government  be  justly  urged? 
That  part  of  our  territory  which  must  ultimately  form  a  state, 
will  no  doubt  be  willing  to  take  the  burthen  of  a  state  govern- 


FLAX  BRAKE 

[Original  owned  by  W.  O.  Converse,  Springfield] 

ment  upon  themselves  at  this  time,  rather  than  submit  any 
longer  to  those  degredations  [sic] ,  which  they  have  so  long  been 
compelled  to  put  up  with.  We  hope  in  our  next  to  present  to  our 
readers,  such  a  view  of  the  subject  as  will  induce  our  fellow  citi- 
zens, as  well  as  the  legislature,  to  take  such  measures  as  will  bring 
it  before  the  national  legislature,  at  their  approaching  season. 
We  invite  a  discussion  of  the  measure  by  such  gentlemen  as 
have,  or  will  reflect  on  the  subject." 

This  utterance,  whether  inspired  by  Cook  or  not  was  the 
prelude  to  a  discussion  of  the  subject  in  which  he  took  the  lead- 
ing part.  In  the  next  issue  of  the  paper  there  appeared  the  ex- 
pected "view  of  the  subject,"  written  by  Cook  over  the  signature 


THE  MOVEMENT  FOR  ADMISSION  211 

"A  republican."223  Asserting  that  the  population  of  the  territory 
had  "increased  to  a  sufficient  number  to  enable  us  to  take  into 
our  own  hands  the  reins  of  self-government"  he  proceeded  "to 
enquire  into  the  policy  of  our  doing  so,  as  well  as  the  practicabil- 
ity of  obtaining  the  sanction  of  the  general  government,  to  such 
a  measure."  Possible  objections  were  first  considered,  one  of 
which  was  the  additional  expense  to  the  people  which  statehood 
would  involve.  The  national  government  was  paying  salaries 
for  Illinois  territory  to  the  amount  of  $6,200,  a  sum  which  in 
that  day  of  small  things  was  worthy  of  serious  consideration. 
Cook  could  only  hold  out  the  forlorn  hope  that  under  state  gov- 
ernment, officials  might  be  prevailed  upon  to  accept  smaller  sal- 
aries at  first.  Another  objection  considered  was  the  ignorance 
of  the  population,  which,  he  maintained,  was  based  on  the  as- 
sumption that  a  large  proportion  of  the  people  were  French. 
This  assumption  he  controverted  by  the  claim  that  nine-tenths 
of  the  voters  were  Americans  who,  previous  to  coming  to  Illi- 
nois, had  taken  part  in  state  government. 

Turning  from  negative  to  positive  arguments,  the  writer  dwelt 
upon  the  advantages  of  state  government.  Not  only  would  the 
legislature  be  freed  from  the  absolute  veto  of  the  governor  but 
it  would  become  supreme  in  the  internal  affairs  of  the  state.  The 
reference  here  was  to  the  inability  of  the  territorial  government 
to  enforce  the  judicial  act,  the  results  of  which  were  painted  in 
lurid  colors.  "Crimes  of  the  blackest  dye,  (even  murder  itself,) 
have  defied  its  feeble  powers  and  laughed  in  guilty  triumph,  at 
their  suffering  victims.  Honest  labor  has  had  its  bread  taken 
out  of  its  mouth,  and  injuries  of  all  kinds  have  implored  relief 
in  vain."  As  Cook  professed,  in  the  following  April,  the  de- 
moralized condition  of  the  judiciary  "was  alone  a  sufficient  rea- 
son for  wishing  for  a  state  government."280 

As  to  "the  practicability  of  obtaining  the  sanction  of  the  gen- 
eral government"  for  admission  with  a  population  less  than  the 
sixty  thousand  which  under  the  ordinance  would  have  given  a 

^Intelligencer,  November  27,  1817.  For  evidence  of  authorship  see  ed- 
itorial in  ibid.,  April  15,  1818. 

™Ibid.,  April  22,  1818. 


212  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

right  to  statehood  to  Illinois,  Cook  was  very  sanguine.  Such  ad- 
mission would  not,  he  maintained,  "be  inconsistent  with  the  gen- 
eral interest  of  the  confederacy."  It  would,  moreover,  have  the 
positive  advantage  of  relieving  congress  of  the  burden  of  legis- 
lating for  the  local  concerns  of  the  territory,  while  "the  strength 
and  respectability  of  the  nation  would  be  greatly  augmented"  by 
the  opening  up  of  "a  new  field  for  the  enlargement  of  the  human 
understanding."  This  was  merely  an  oratorical  way  of  stating 
that  the  change  would  give  an  added  impetus  to  immigration. 
This  Cook  believed  to  be  true  because,  "at  present  it  is  doubtful 
whether  slavery  will  be  tolerated  when  a  state  government  is 
formed.  And  many  on  both  sides  of  the  question  are  remaining 
in  the  anxiety  of  suspense,  to  know  how  it  will  be  settled.  It  is 
therefore  desirable  to  settle  the  question  at  as  early  a  period  as 
possible,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  relief  to  those  who  are  want- 
ing to  emigrate  to  the  territory." 

Three  days  after  this  communication  appeared  in  the  Intelli- 
gencer, the  legislature  assembled  in  Kaskaskia;  and  on  the  fol- 
lowing day,  December  2,  1817,  Governor  Edwards  delivered  his 
message  to  the  two  houses.231  The  members  "and  the  citizens  at 
large"  were  congratulated  "upon  the  flattering  prospects  which 
our  astonishingly  rapid  increase  of  population  affords  that  our 
present  temporary  government  must  soon  give  place  to  one  more 
congenial  to  the  principles  of  natural  liberty."  The  governor's 
recommendation  "for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  this  desirable 
event,  and  as  preparatory  thereto"  was  "to  provide  by  law  for 
taking  the  census  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  this  territory,  so  that 
it  may  be  laid  before  the  legislature  at  its  next  session." 

This  would  have  been  the  ordinary  procedure,  but  it  was  alto- 
gether too  leisurely  for  those  who  were  eager  for  immediate 
statehood.  Daniel  Pope  Cook,  having  been  elected  clerk  of  the 
house  of  representatives  was  in  a  position  to  exert  considerable 
influence;  and  on  the  same  day  upon  which  the  governor's  mes- 
sage was  delivered,  the  house  resolved,  upon  the  motion  of 
Bradsby  of  St.  Clair,  "that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  draft  a 
memorial  to  congress  praying  for  this  territory  to  be  admitted 

'"Intelligencer,  December  4,  1817. 


THE  MOVEMENT  FOR  ADMISSION  213 

into  the  union,  with  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  a  state  gov- 
ernment." Four  days  later,  December  6,  the  memorial  was 
adopted  by  the  house,  and  on  the  tenth  it  received  the  approval 
of  the  council  and  was  laid  before  the  governor.  The  rapidity 
of  its  passage  was  possible  only  because  of  the  lack  of  opposition, 
it  being  the  "unanimous  voice  of  our  representatives  from  every 
part  of  the  territory,  that  are  desirous  to  enter  into  a  state  gov- 
ernment."232 

The  memorial  consists  of  two  long  paragraphs,  of  which  the 
first  has  many  points  of  similarity  with  the  communication  of  "A 
republican"  in  the  paper  of  November  27,  and  may  well  have 
been  written  by  Cook.  The  territorial  government  is  character- 
ized as  "a  species  of  despotism  in  direct  hostility  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  a  republican  government"  which  "ought  to  exist  no 
longer  than  absolute  necessity  may  require  it."  The  population 
is  estimated  at  "not  less  than  forty  thousand  souls"  and  the  fit- 
ness for  self-government  of  the  citizens  of  the  territory  "mostly 
composed  of  those  who  have  imigrated  [sic]  hither  from  the 
atlantic  and  western  states"  is  pointed  out.  The  second  paragraph, 
probably  the  work  of  some  mind  more  practical  than  Cook's, 
suggested  a  solution  of  the  financial  difficulty.  Congress  was 
asked  "for  a  grant  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  state  of  the  Lead 
Mines  and  Salt  Springs;  together  with  the  lands  adjoining, 
which  have  been  reserved  from  sale  within  the  limits  of  the 
state;  also  that  section  sixteen  in  each  township  reserved  from 
sale,  may  be  granted  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  township  for  the 
use  of  schools — also  that  a  part  of  the  net  proceeds  of  the  lands 
lying  within  the  state,  which  may  be  sold  by  the  authority  of 
your  honorable  body  may  be  appropriated  to  the  laying  out  and 
making  public  roads ;  and  finally  for  all  such  gifts  and  privileges 
as  were  made  and  given  by  the  congress  of  the  United  States  to 
the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Mississippi,  and  upon  the  like  con- 
ditions." 

Two  points  of  special  interest  present  themselves  in  connection 
with  this  memorial.  Would  congress  accept  the  unsupported 
statement  that  the  territory  had  a  population  of  forty  thousand 

^Intelligencer,  December  4,  n,  1817;  manuscript  journal  of  the  legislative 
council,  1817-1818,  in  secretary  of  state's  office. 


214  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

souls?  Was  the  step  contemplated  really  desired  by  the  people 
of  the  territory?  In  answer  to  the  first  of  these  questions,  Cook 
wrote  in  the  Intelligencer  of  December  1 1 :  "The  census  not  hav- 
ing been  taken  certainly  can  make  no  difference,  when,  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  people  from  each  county  agree  that  there  are 
40,000  inhabitants — their  information  is  the  best  except  that 
which  would  be  derived  from  actual  enumeration. — The  willing- 
ness of  the  people,  with  this  strong  evidence  of  their  numbers, 
ought  to  secure  the  privilege  prayed  for."  This  tone  of  confi- 
dence in  the  young  man  just  from  Washington  and  high  in  the 
esteem  of  officials  there,  was  probably  an  important  factor  in 
securing  the  immediate  adoption  of  the  memorial.  On  the  sec- 
ond question,  the  memorial  itself  states  that  among  the  whole 
people  "there  is  an  unusual  coincidence  of  sentiment  as  to  the 
propriety  of  forming  a  state  government,"  while  the  editors  of 
the  Intelligencer  declared  it  to  be  "the  first  wish  of  the  people." 
Yet  the  initiative  certainly  did  not  come  from  the  people.  The 
members  of  the  legislature  had  all  been  elected  in  1816,  when 
the  question  of  statehood  was  not  an  issue;  and  in  1817  the  sub- 
ject was  not  broached  in  time  for  any  adequate  public  discussion. 
Three  weeks  from  the  time  of  Cook's  return  to  Kaskaskia  and 
the  first  intimation  of  the  movement  in  the  newspaper,  the 
memorial  was  ready  to  be  sent  to  Washington. 

The  usual  procedure  would  have  been  for  this  legislature  to 
have  provided  for  a  census  to  be  laid  before  the  next  legislative 
session,  as  recommended  by  the  governor.  The  question  of 
statehood  would  then  have  been  an  issue  in  the  election  of  1818, 
and  the  members  of  the  next  legislature  could  have  acted  on  the 
subject  with  adequate  knowledge  of  the  population  of  the  terri- 
tory and  of  the  wishes  of  their  constituents.  Was  there  any 
reason  for  the  haste  with  which  the  movement  was  put  through 
other  than  the  feverish  energy  of  its  youthful  promoter  and  the 
desire  for  a  "redress  of  colonial  grievances?"  The  answer  to 
this  question  may  be  sought  in  a  study  of  the  attempt  made  dur- 
ing this  session  to  brand  the  system  of  indentured  servitude  in 
force  in  the  territory  as  a  violation  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787. 

The  indenture  act  of  Indiana  as  revised  in  1807  had  continued 


DANIEL  POPE  COOK 

[From  original  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Socieyt) 


THE  MOVEMENT  FOR  ADMISSION  215 

in  effect  in  Illinois  by  virtue  of  the  resolution  adopted  by  the 
governor  and  judges  of  Illinois  territory  in  1809,  that  "the  laws 
of  Indiana  Territory  of  a  general  nature  ....  are  still  in 
force  in  this  Territory."233  Although  in  Indiana  the  act  had  been 
repealed  shortly  after  the  separation,  no  attempt  seems  to  have 
been  made  to  repeal  it  in  Illinois  prior  to  the  legislative  session 
of  1817-1818.  During  the  territorial  period,  however,  especially 
as  the  northwestern  counties  filled  up  in  the  years  after  1815, 
there  was  certainly  a  growing  sentiment  against  the  institution  as 
it  existed  in  the  territory.28* 

To  the  men  who  represented  that  sentiment  it  may  well  have 
seemed  in  1817  that  the  time  had  come  to  strike  for  freedom. 
A  month  or  two  before  the  inauguration  of  the  movement  for 
statehood  in  Illinois,  petitions  asking  for  admission  to  the  union 
began  to  be  circulated  in  Missouri.  There  was  every  reason  to 
believe  that  Missouri  would  come  in  as  a  slave  state,  and  if  that 
should  happen  before  Illinois  was  admitted,  the  existence  of 
slavery  there  would  be  the  strongest  argument  for  allowing  it 
in  Illinois  also.  The  passage  of  the  slaveholding  immigrants 
across  Illinois  to  locate  in  Missouri  was  always  galling  to  the 
people  of  Illinois,  anxious  as  they  were  for  the  rapid  develop- 
ment of  the  country.  The  opponents  of  slavery  maintained, 
however,  that  its  exclusion  did  not  retard  the  development  of 
the  state,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  they  felt  that  if  Illinois 
could  achieve  statehood  before  her  rival  across  the  river,  it 
would  strengthen  their  argument.  It  was  important,  therefore, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  antislavery  men,  that  Illinois 
should  become  a  state  with  a  free  constitution  as  provided  by 
the  ordinance  before  the  constitution  of  Missouri  should  become 
a  subject  for  discussion. 

But  these  men  could  not  be  content  with  merely  the  oppor- 
tunity for  Illinois  to  frame  a  constitution  in  accord  with  the 
ordinance  as  it  was  then  interpreted.  That  would  permit  the 
continuance  indefinitely  of  such  slavery  as  existed  prior  to  the 
adoption  of  the  ordinance  and  especially  of  the  system  of  in- 
dentured servitude.  This,  it  is  believed,  is  the  explanation  of 

""Alvord,  Laws  of  the  Territory,  i.    See  above,  p.  187. 
'"See  appendix,  p.  319. 


216  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

the  introduction  in  the  house  of  representatives  on  December 
10,  the  day  before  the  final  passage  by  the  council  of  the  memo- 
rial asking  for  statehood,  of  a  bill,  not  only  for  the  repeal  of 
the  law  establishing  the  indenture  system,  but  containing  also 
a  preamble  declaring  that  law  to  be  in  contravention  to  the  para- 
mount law  of  the  land.  Apparently  the  intention  was  to  estab- 
lish the  invalidity  of  the  law  in  such  a  way  and  at  such  a  time 
as  to  make  it  impossible  for  the  constitutional  convention  to 
ignore  the  action.  The  bill,  when  introduced  by  Matheny,  "gave 
rise  to  some  warmth  and  animation  of  argument  on  both  sides." 
Bradsby  and  Matheny,  both  of  whom  had  been  members  of 
the  committee  of  four  which  framed  the  statehood  memorial, 
defended  it  and  Dr.  Fisher,  the  speaker,  opposed  it. 

Bradsby  was  careful  to  ask  that  the  question  be  considered 
as  "envolving  the  enquiry,  whether  the  legislature  which  passed 
the  law  which  it  is  the  object  of  this  bill  to  repeal,  exercised  its 
legislative  power  within  constitutional  limits."  The  argument 
was,  of  course,  that  the  action  of  a  slave  in  indenturing  himself 
to  his  master  could  not  be  considered  as  voluntary  and  conse- 
quently the  whole  system  was  "involuntary  servitude"  and  a  vio- 
lation of  the  ordinance.  Emphasis  was  laid  also  upon  the  fact 
that  this  provision  of  the  ordinance  was  one  of  the  articles  of 
compact  "intended  'to  fix  and  establish  those  principles  as  the 
basis  of  all  laws,  constitutions,  and  governments  which  forever 
hereafter  shall  be  formed  in  this  Territory.' '  Fisher  in  reply 
contended  that  it  was  outside  the  province  of  the  legislature  to 
pass  upon  the  constitutionality  of  a  law.  "If  it  be  unconstitu- 
tional there  is  no  necessity  of  our  repealing  it,  it  is  of  itself  void, 
and  requires  no  annulling  act  of  the  legislature.  .  .  .  The  law 
was  passed  by  a  former  legislature,  and  whether  it  is  constitu- 
tional or  not  is  for  the  judiciary  to  determine,  and  even  if  we 
believe  it  so,  it  is  no  violation  of  our  oaths,  to  leave  it  to  a  tri- 
bunal having  the  power  and  authority  to  determine  upon  it.  As 
it  has  stood  so  long  I  see  no  impropriety  in  leaving  it  to  be  settled 
by  the  convention  who  shall  frame  our  constitution,  which  will 
not  be  long  hence."  Matheny  in  his  reply  to  Fisher  took  the  curi- 


THE  MOVEMENT  FOR  ADMISSION  217 

ous  position  that  the  bill  if  passed,  although  it  declared  the  in- 
denture act  a  violation  of  the  ordinance,  would  "have  no  influ- 
ence on  contracts  that  have  been  heretofore  made,  if  such  were 
its  intended  operation,  it  would  be  an  expost  facto  law,  and 
therefore  unconstitutional." 

Unfortunately  the  vote  by  which  this  bill  passed  the  house 
is  not  available.  On  December  13,  the  bill  was  sent  to  the  coun- 
cil, where  it  was  twice  debated  in  committee  of  the  whole;  and, 
on  the  seventeenth  that  body  concurred  without  amendment. 
Those  voting  in  favor  of  the  measure  were  Amos  of  St.  Clair, 
Grammar  of  Johnson,  and  Lofton  of  Madison;  against  it  were 
Browne  of  Gallatin,  and  Menard  of  Randolph.285 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  attitude  of  Governor  Edwards 
toward  the  institution  of  slavery,  he  was  unwilling  to  approve 
the  measure  in  the  form  which  it  had  taken;  and  on  January  i, 
1818,  he  returned  the  bill  to  the  house  in  which  it  had  originated, 
accompanied  by  his  objections:  "passing  over  minor  objections 
to  the  preamble  of  the  bill,  and  considering  that  the  law,  which 
I  suppose  it  was  intended  to  repeal,  was  enacted  first,  by  the 
legislature  of  the  Indiana  Territory — that  it  was  subsequently 
modified  by  the  Governor  and  Judges  of  this  Territory — that 
being  so  modified,  it  was  re-enacted  unanimously,  by  our  general 
assembly,  at  its  first  session  and  has  been  acquiesced  in,  and 
sanctioned  at  every  subsequent  session:  I  cannot  think  it  either 
proper,  or  necessary,  to  impute  to  our  predecessors,  a  total  disre- 
gard of  their  oaths,  and  an  intentional  violation  of  their  duty; 
which  I  think  is  done  by  the  preamble  in  question,  and  which  also 
implies  a  great  reproach  and  censure  upon  ourselves  for  having 
neglected  to  act  upon  the  subject  at  our  last  session;  for  if  we 
then  entertained  such  sentiments,  how  can  we  answer  it  to  our 
country?  to  our  consciences?  to  our  God,  before  whom  we  sol- 
emnly swore  to  endeavor  to  fulfil  our  duties?  for  not  having 
attempted  at  least,  to  arrest  an  evil,  which  under  insidious  'pre- 
tences, it  was  intended,'  to  fix  upon  our  territory,  to  its  great 
detriment,  'contrary  to  the  ordinance,  and  to  the  feelings  and 

"This  whole  discussion  may  be  followed  in  the  Intelligencer  for  Decem- 
ber, 1817,  and  January,  1818,  and  in  the  manuscript  journal  of  the  legislative 
council,  1817-1818,  in  the  secretary  of  state's  office. 


218  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

wishes  of  our  fellow  citizens.' '  After  declaring  that  questions 
of  the  validity  of  laws  "ought  rather  to  be  left  to  the  decision 
of  the  judiciary,  to  whose  province  it  more  peculiarly  belongs," 
he  proceeded  to  a  long  disquisition  intended  to  prove  that  the 
indenture  law  in  question  was  not  a  violation  of  the  ordinance. 
In  conclusion  he  pointed  out  that  his  remarks  were  "intended 
to  apply  to  the  question  of  legislative  power,  and  not  to  the 
propriety,  or  expediency  of  its  exercise,  in  the  particular  instance 
alluded  to;"  and  finally,  he  declared  himself  "no  advocate  for 
slavery,  and  if  it  depended  upon  my  vote  alone,  it  should  never 
be  admitted  in  any  state  or  Territory,  not  already  cursed  with 
so  great  an  evil.  I  have  no  objection  to  the  repeal  which  I  sup- 
pose was  intended." 

Two  weeks  later,  in  his  speech  proroguing  the  legislature,  the 
governor  felt  it  necessary  "for  the  purpose  of  preventing  all 
possible  misapprehension"  to  discuss  the  subject  again.  After 
stating  that  he  had  not  desired  to  "defeat  the  measure,  that  was 
intended  to  be  adopted,"  he  pointed  out  that  the  "particular 
friends  of  the  measure"  might  after  his  veto  "have  introduced 
and  passed  a  bill  less  objectionable,  and  better  calculated  to 
effect  the  object  that  seemed  to  be  so  greatly  desired."  Or,  he 
continued,  "the  object  could  have  been  completely  effected  by 
the  passage  of  a  bill  to  amend  the  law  alluded  to,  by  limiting 
the  period  of  service  to  one  year  only."286  Such  a  measure  would 
have  confirmed  the  validity  of  the  indenture  system,  and  the 
failure  of  the  legislature  to  take  any  further  action  after  the 
veto  indicates  clearly  that  it  was  the  preamble  of  the  bill,  the 
very  part  to  which  the  governor  objected,  that  the  antislavery 
men  had  at  heart. 

The  result  of  this  antislavery  movement  in  the  last  territorial 
legislative  session,  and  of  its  failure,  was  the  establishment  of 
slavery  as  the  dominant  issue  in  the  forthcoming  campaign  for 
delegates  to  the  constitutional  convention.  In  this  the  proslavery 
men  had  the  advantage,  for  the  extreme  antislavery  men  by  de- 
claring themselves  so  positively  at  the  very  beginning,  left  the 
whole  of  the  middle  ground  to  their  opponents.  They  made  it 

"'Intelligencer,  January  i,  13,  1818. 


THE  MOVEMENT  FOR  ADMISSION  219 

necessary  for  those  who  sought  only  to  keep  conditions  as  they 
were  to  work  together  with  advocates  of  unrestricted  slavery. 
The  line  of  argument  to  be  followed  was  already  indicated  by 
Fisher  in  his  speech  against  the  repeal  of  the  indenture  law. 
Referring  to  the  constitutional  convention,  he  said:  "We  then 
perhaps  may  do  something  which  will  lead  to  a  gradual  emanci- 
pation of  slavery  in  a  partial  degree,  and  so  ultimately  benefit 
them  [the  slaves]  in  their  condition.  For  although  I  am  opposed 
to  slavery  upon  principle,  yet  I  think  if  we  can  better  their  condi- 
tion and  gradually  emancipate  them,  by  bringing  them  to  our 
Territory,  we  are  doing  a  laudable  thing."237 

Although  the  legislature  had  decided  in  favor  of  an  appeal 
to  congress  for  admission  to  the  union  without  waiting  for  a 
census,  some  doubts  were  entertained  apparently  as  to  the  will- 
ingness of  congress  to  allow  the  movement  to  proceed  without 
positive  evidence  as  to  the  population  of  the  territory.  Toward 
the  close  of  the  session  a  law  was  enacted  providing  for  a  census 
of  all  the  inhabitants.  The  enumeration  was  to  begin  April  first 
and  the  returns,  instead  of  being  laid  before  the  next  legislature, 
as  the  governor  had  suggested,  were  to  be  deposited  in  the  office 
of  the  secretary  on  or  before  June  first.  The  commissioners  were 
instructed  "to  take  a  list  of  all  citizens,  of  all  ages,  sexes  and 
colour,  within  their  respective  counties,  particularly  noting  wheth- 
er white  or  black,  and  also  noting  particularly  free  male  inhab- 
itants above  the  age  of  twenty-one  years."238 

Realizing  apparently  that  its  optimistic  predictions  as  to  popu- 
lation might  not  be  fulfilled  at  so  early  a  date  as  June  first,  the 
legislature  enacted  a  supplementary  law,  the  preamble  of  which 
suggested  that  "a  great  increase  of  population  may  be  expected 
between  the  first  day  of  next  June  and  December  following." 
In  accordance  with  this  preamble  the  act  directed  the  commis- 
sioners to  "continue  to  take  the  census  of  all  persons  who  may 
remove  into  their  respective  counties  between  the  first  day  of 
June  and  the  first  day  of  December  next,  succeeding;  of  which 
additional  returns  shall  be  made  to  the  secretary's  office,  within 

^"Intelligencer,  December  18,  1817. 

""Laws  of  Illinois  Territory,  1817-1818,  p.  42-44. 


220  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

the  first  week  in  December  next."  In  order  to  prevent  unneces- 
sary expenditure,  a  provision  was  added  "that  no  such  addi- 
tional service  shall  be  performed  if  congress  should  authorize 
the  citizens  of  this  territory  to  form  a  state  government  with- 
out it/'289 

One  other  action  of  this  legislature  is  of  interest  in  connec- 
tion with  the  movement  for  statehood.  Between  1812  and  1818, 
seven  counties,  Edwards,  White,  Jackson,  Pope,  Monroe,  Craw- 
ford, and  Bond  had  been  added  by  the  legislature  to  the  five 
existing  when  the  second  stage  of  territorial  government  was 
adopted.  By  acts  of  January  2,  1818,  three  new  counties,  Wash- 
ington, Franklin,  and  Union,  were  established,  making  a  total 
of  fifteen  counties  in  Illinois  in  the  year  of  admission.  The 
significance  of  the  establishment  of  new  counties  in  1818  lies 
in  its  bearing  on  the  question  of  apportionment  of  delegates  to 
the  convention,  for  the  practice  had  grown  up  in  Illinois  terri- 
tory of  ignoring  population  to  a  considerable  extent  in  the  ap- 
portionment of  members  of  the  legislature.  About  the  same 
time  that  bills  for  the  new  counties  were  passed  by  the  two 
houses,  a  joint  resolution  was  adopted  authorizing  representa- 
tives to  be  apportioned  for  a  convention  to  form  a  permanent 
constitution.  No  copy  of  this  resolution  has  been  found,  but  it 
is  probable  that  the  apportionment  section  of  the  enabling  act 
embodied  its  provisions. 

The  legislative  memorial  praying  for  statehood  was  doubtless 
dispatched  to  Washington  immediately  after  its  adoption  by  the 
council  on  December  10,  1817.  Once  there,  its  fate  depended 
upon  the  exertions  of  Nathaniel  Pope,  the  delegate  from  the 
territory  in  the  house  of  representatives.  Pope  must  have  left 
Illinois  before  the  return  of  Cook  to  Kaskaskia,240  and  it  is  quite 
improbable,  therefore,  that  he  had  any  part  in  the  inception 
of  the  movement  for  statehood.  During  the  campaign  for  the 
election  of  members  of  the  convention  the  editor  of  the  Intel- 

'"Laws  of  Illinois  Territory,  1817-1818,  p.  44-45. 

*°He  arrived  in  Washington,  December  6;  see  Intelligencer,  January  21, 
1818.  For  action  of  the  Illinois  legislative  council  see,  Laws  of  Illinois  Ter- 
ritory, 1817-1818,  p.  11-17,  39-41 ;  manuscript  journal  of  the  legislative  coun- 
cil, 1817-1818,  in  the  secretary  of  state's  office. 


NATHANIEL  POPE 

IFrom  original  picture  owned  by  Missouri  Historical  Society,  St.  Louis 


THE  MOVEMENT  FOR  ADMISSION  221 

ligencer  said  of  Pope :  "It  is  well  known  that  he  had  no  agency 
in  putting  on  foot  the  application  to  congress  for  a  state  govern- 
ment."241 However  that  may  have  been,  he  must  have  been  in 
complete  sympathy  with  it;  and  the  rapidity  with  which  matters 
were  pushed  along  would  indicate  that  he,  too,  realized  the  im- 
portance of  getting  in  ahead  of  Missouri. 

The  Illinois  memorial  was  laid  before  the  house  by  Pope  on 
January  16,  1818,  and  was  immediately  referred  to  a  select 
committee  of  which  the  Illinois  delegate  was  chairman.  Clai- 
borne  of  Tennessee,  Johnson  of  Kentucky,  Spencer  of  New 
York,  and  Whitman  of  Massachusetts  were  the  other  members 
of  the  committee.  Five  days  later  Pope  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
editors  of  the  Intelligencer  which  throws  light  on  the  attitude 
of  the  committee:  "The  only  difficulty  I  have  to  overcome  is, 
whether  we  have  the  population  supposed  by  the  Legislature; 
no  enumeration  of  the  inhabitants  having  lately  been  taken.  In 
order  to  evade  that  objection  the  bill  contains  a  proviso,  that 
the  census  shall  be  taken  previously  to  the  meeting  of  the  Con- 
vention— I  hope  however  to  have  that  feature  of  the  bill  struck 
out  before  its  final  passage,  if  it  passes  at  all,  of  which  I  have 

strong  hopes If  it  were  certain  that  we  had  even 

thirty-five  thousand  inhabitants,  no  objection  I  think  would  be 
made  to  our  admission."242  Thirty-five  thousand  inhabitants 
was  the  ratio  of  congressional  apportionment  at  that  time,  and 
it  would  appear  that  some  member  of  the  committee — possibly 
Spencer,  who  made  a  similar  point  the  following  November — 
felt  that  positive  evidence  of  at  least  that  many  should  be  insisted 
upon. 

Pope's  letter  of  January  21,  just  referred  to,  states  his  inten- 
tion of  reporting  the  bill  that  day;  but  it  was  not  brought  in 
until  the  twenty-third,  one  week  after  the  committee  was  ap- 
pointed. For  this  bill  "To  enable  the  people  of  Illinois  Territory, 
to  form  a  Constitution  and  state  government,  and  for  the  admis- 
sion of  such  state  into  the  union,  on  an  equal  footing  with  the 
original  states,"  the  Indiana  enabling  act  of  1816  served  as  a 

^Intelligencer,  June  24,  1818. 
™Ibid.,  March  4,  1818. 


Of  me  ccs 


mvaiufc  inrsiise 


-r   -.1: - 


R*l  I^TTT    T!^    JH\y     Tff^^g*~~ 

•^••"nii    -fr~- 
-li  ~    ^frar*z.   ^m: 

niE3«Hs.aHUMKi 

•    ...  " 
"ftff  «?E7i   TTnriini"r)'i"nT^  T: 


-  i^s 


• 
"  *"""._  •  ~  ~   .    .'.  . 


"  -  '  - 


•    .•--_-.. 


\.  "    ~.~~    ; ' 


grrr  inr 


I;HI    - 


ond.  TI 


'  Tt^ 


224  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

should  remain  exempt  from  taxation  for  six  years  after  date 
of  sale.  They  differed  from  the  grants  to  Indiana  only  in  the 
inclusion  of  lead  mines,  as  requested  by  the  Illinois  memorial, 
and  the  exclusion  of  a  grant  of  four  sections  of  land  "for  the 
purpose  of  fixing  their  seat  of  government  thereon."  The  failure 
to  ask  for  land  for  a  capital  site  was  probably  an  oversight  on 
the  part  of  the  men  who  drew  up  the  memorial.  Had  it  been 
included  among  the  grants  in  the  enabling  act,  the  question  of 
the  location  of  the  capital  would  doubtless  have  been  an  issue 
in  the  pre-convention  campaign,  as  it  was  later  in  the  conven- 
tion itself. 

This  completes  the  enumeration  of  the  provisions  finally  com- 
prised in  the  enabling  act.  The  remaining  sections  of  the  bill 
numbered  seven  to  eleven  inclusive  provided  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  United  States  court  for  the  Illinois  district,  with  all 
its  attendant  officials.  Nothing  comparable  to  these  sections 
is  to  be  found  in  the  enabling  act  of  any  other  state,  and  they 
were  dropped  from  the  bill  before  it  was  passed.  The  objection 
to  them  doubtless  was  that  they  were  out  of  place  in  the  bill, 
for  at  the  next  session  of  congress  they  were  enacted  word  for 
word  as  "An  Act  to  provide  for  the  due  execution  of  the  laws 
of  the  United  States  within  the  state  of  Illinois."245 

This  enabling  bill,  introduced  by  Pope  for  the  committee  on 
Friday,  January  23,  "was  read  twice,  and  committed  to  a  Com- 
mittee of  the  Whole,  on  Monday  next."  Not  until  April  ^4, 
however,  was  it  taken  up  for  consideration,  "in  consequence 
of  the  great  number  of  bills  which  were  introduced  before  and 
claimed  a  prior [i]ty."246 

When  the  bill  finally  came  up  in  the  house,  Pope  at  once  intro- 
duced an  amendment  to  fix  the  northern  boundary  on  the  line 
of  forty-two  degrees  and  thirty  minutes  north  latitude — about 
forty-one  miles  north  of  the  line  fixed  in  the  bill  and  fifty- 
one  miles  north  of  the  dividing  line  proposed  in  the  ordin- 
ance. So  early  as  January  27,  four  days  after  the  bill  was 

'"Statutes  at  Large,  3:502.  It  might  be  noted  in  passing  that  Nathaniel 
Pope  was  the  first  United  States  judge  appointed  under  this  act. 

™Annals  of  Congress,  15  congress,  i  session,  1:814;  2:1677;  Intelligencer, 
April  15,  1818. 


THE  MOVEMENT  FOR  ADMISSION  225 

introduced,  Pope  had  reached  the  conclusion  that  such  a  change 
was  desirable  for,  in  his  letter  of  that  date  forwarding  a  copy 
of  the  bill  to  the  Intelligencer,  he  wrote :  "You  will  remark  that 
the  northern  line  is  ten  miles  north  of  the  southernly  extremity 
of  Lake  Michigan — Indiana  goes  as  far  north.  When  the  bill 
is  taken  up,  I  will  endeavour  to  procure  twenty  or  thirty  miles 
farther  north,  and  make  Lake  Michigan  a  part  of  our  eastern 
boundary.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  explain  the  importance  of  such 
an  accession  of  territory;  it  is  too  obvious  to  every  man  who 
looks  to  the  prospective  weight  and  influence  of  the  state  of 
Illinois."  In  support  of  the  amendment,  Pope  said  that  its  object 
"was  to  gain,  for  the  proposed  State,  a  coast  on  Lake  Michigan. 
This  would  afford  additional  security  to  the  perpetuity  of  the 
Union,  inasmuch  as  the  State  would  thereby  be  connected  with 
the  States  of  Indiana,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York, 
through  the  Lakes.  The  facility  of  opening  a  canal  between 
Lake  Michigan  and  the  Illinois  river,  said  Mr.  P.,  is  acknowl- 
edged by  every  one  who  has  visited  the  place.  Giving  to  the 
proposed  State  the  port  of  Chicago,  (embraced  in  the  proposed 
limits,)  will  draw  its  attention  to  the  opening  of  the  communi- 
cation between  the  Illinois  river  and  that  place,  and  the  improve- 
ment of  that  harbor."  Since  the  line  proposed  by  the  ordinance 
had  not  been  adopted  in  the  case  of  Indiana  nor  in  the  bill  itself 
to  which  this  amendment  was  proposed,  it  was  difficult  to  object 
to  the  change  on  the  grounds  of  a  violation  of  that  document,  and 
the  motion  to  amend  "was  agreed  to  without  a  division."241 

The  advantages  of  this  change,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
those  who  desired  that  Illinois  should  ultimately  be  a  free  instead 
of  a  slave  state,  are  obvious;  and  Pope's  argument  might  be 
taken  as  an  indication  that  he  had  those  advantages  in  mind.248 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  real  motives  back  of  the  amend- 
ment, and  however  it  may  have  originated,  it  appears  to  have 
aroused  little  interest  in  Illinois  at  the  time.  It  was  mentioned 
without  comment  in  an  article  in  the  Intelligencer  of  April  29, 
based  on  a  letter  from  Pope  dated  April  6;  while  an  editorial 

*" Intelligencer,  March  u,  1818;  Annals  of  Congress,  15  congress,  i  ses- 
sion, 2:1677. 

^'See  appendix,  p.  319-320. 


226  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

on  the  enabling  act  as  finally  passed,  in  the  issue  of  May  20, 
recounts  many  of  its  advantageous  features  and  expresses  deep 
appreciation  of  Pope's  services  but  makes  no  mention  of  the 
change  in  boundary.  The  important  consequences  which  have 
flowed  from  this  change,  not  only  for  Illinois  but  for  the  coun- 
try as  a  whole  have  often  been  pointed  out  and  need  not  be 
dwelt  upon  here.249  It  added  to  Illinois  a  region  of  over  8,000 
square  miles  in  which  lie  the  greater  part  of  fourteen  counties 
containing,  with  the  city  of  Chicago,  over  half  the  population  of 
the  state. 

A  second  amendment  proposed  by  Pope  on  April  4  provided 
that  three  of  the  five  per  cent250  of  the  proceeds  of  federal  land 
sales  in  Illinois,  should  be  used,  not  for  roads  and  canals  in 
the  state  as  provided  in  the  bill  and  in  previous  enabling  acts, 
but  "for  the  encouragement  of  learning,  of  which  one  [-sixth] 
part  shall  be  exclusively  bestowed  on  a  college  or  university." 
In  explaining  this  amendment  Pope  pointed  out  that  the  applica- 
tion of  this  fund  to  roads  in  the  other  states  had  "not  been  pro- 
ductive of  the  good  anticipated;  on  the  contrary,  it  had  been 
exhausted  on  local  and  neighborhood  objects,  by  its  distribution 
among  the  counties."  The  statement  that  "nature  had  left  little 
to  be  done  in  the  proposed  State  of  Illinois,  in  order  to  have  the 
finest  roads  in  the  world"  would  hardly  be  concurred  in  by  one 
familiar  writh  the  roads  in  the  central  part  of  the  state  nearly 
a  century  later;  but  no  exception  need  be  taken  to  the  emphasis 
upon  the  "importance  of  education  in  a  Republic."  Moreover, 
"that  no  immediate  aid  could  be  derived  in  new  count [r]ies 
from  waste  lands  was  not  less  obvious;  and  that  no  active  fund 
would  be  provided  in  a  new  State,  the  history  of  the  Western 
States  too  clearly  proved."  This  amendment  too  was  accepted 
without  a  division. 

"Some  further  amendments"  were  then  agreed  to,  including 
one  moved  by  Taylor  of  New  York  adding  a  proviso  "that  the 
bounty-lands  granted,  or  hereafter  to  be  granted,  for  military 

"*For  a  discussion  of  this  subject  and  an  account  of  the  attempts  made 
later  in  the  region  affected,  and  in  Wisconsin  to  restore  the  ordinance  boun- 
dary, see  Moses,  Illinois,  i  -.278-282. 

^The  other  two  per  cent  was  to  be  used  "under  the  direction  of  Con- 
gress, in  making  roads  leading  to  the  State." 


THE  MOVEMENT  FOR  ADMISSION  227 

services  during  the  late  war,  shall,  while  they  continue  to  be  held 
by  the  patentees,  or  their  heirs,  remain  exempt,  as  aforesaid, 
from  all  taxes,  for  the  term  of  three  years,  from  and  after  the 
date  of  the  patents  respectively;  and  that  all  the  lands  belonging 
to  the  citizens  of  the  United  States,  residing  without  the  said 
State,  shall  never  be  taxed  higher  than  lands  belonging  to  per- 
sons residing  therein."251  Pope  does  not  appear  to  have  opposed 
this  amendment  although  it  must  have  been  unpalatable  to  him. 
Early  in  the  session  a  resolution  had  been  introduced  to  exempt 
the  bounty-lands  from  taxation  for  five  years,  a  proposition 
which  Pope  believed  "would  enable  speculators  to  hold  up  their 
lands  from  market,  and  prevent  the  territory  from  taxing  three 
and  a  half  millions  of  acres  of  land,  and  most  of  that  belonging 
to  individuals,  who  obtained  it  at  less  than  fifty  cents  per  acre." 
On  January  21,  he  wrote  that  he  had  no  fears  that  the  measure 
would  succeed,  "so  that  we  may  calculate  upon  a  handsome 
revenue  from  that  quarter."  The  provision  introduced  in  the 
enabling  act  was  less  objectionable  because  it  was  restricted  to 
three  years  and  then  applied  only  if  the  land  was  retained  by 
the  patentees  or  their  heirs.  "We  shall  not,"  the  editors  of  the 
Intelligencer  consoled  the  people,  "lose  much  by  that,  because 
most  of  it  will  pass  into  the  hands  of  others."282 

It  must  have  been  at  this  time  that  the  grant  of  lead  mines 
was  stricken  out  and  the  provision  relative  to  the  census  changed. 
Pope  did  not  succeed  in  getting  the  census  feature  eliminated 
from  the  bill;  but  section  twelve,  which  provided  that  the  count 
should  be  made  by  the  marshal,  was  stricken  out  and  section 
four  modified  to  allow  the  convention  to  rely  upon  "the  enumera- 
tion directed  to  be  made  by  the  legislature  of  the  said  Territory." 
The  blank  for  the  population  to  be  required  was  filled  in  as  forty 
thousand,  the  number  claimed  in  the  memorial  from  the  legis- 
lature. The  apportionment  of  delegates  in  the  convention  was 
set  at  three  each  to  Madison,  St.  Clair,  and  Gallatin  counties  and 
two  each  to  the  others,  including  the  three  counties  established 
in  January,  1818.  No  statistics  as  to  the  population  of  the 

K*  Annals  of  Congress,  15  congress,  I  session,  2:1677;  Thorpe,  Constitu- 
tions, 2  1969-970. 

^'Intelligencer,  January  21,  March  4,  April  29,  1818. 


228  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

counties  were  at  hand,  of  course,  and  it  is  probable  that  the 
legislative  resolution  on  the  subject  was  followed.268  A  fair 
apportionment  of  the  same  number  of  representatives — thirty- 
three — on  the  basis  of  the  census  of  1818  would  have  given  five 
to  Madison  county;  four  to  St.  Clair;  three  each  to  Randolph, 
Gallatin,  and  White;  two  each  to  Washington,  Union,  Pope, 
Edwards,  and  Crawford;  and  one  each  to  Bond,  Monroe,  Jack- 
son, Johnson,  and  Franklin. 

Some  of  the  amendments  were  adopted  in  the  house  itself 
after  the  committee  rose  and  reported  the  bill.  It  was  then 
"ordered  to  be  engrossed,  as  amended,  and  read  a  third  time, 
nemine  contradicente."  The  third  reading  and  final  passage  of 
the  bill  in  the  house  took  place  on  April  6,  also,  apparently,  with- 
out opposition ;  and  it  was  transmitted  to  the  senate  the  following 
day.  There  the  bill  was  given  its  first  and  second  readings  at 
once  and  then  referred  to  the  committee  on  public  lands. 

The  senate  committee  reported  the  bill  with  amendments  the 
day  after  it  was  received,  and  on  the  thirteenth  it  was  taken  up 
in  committee  of  the  whole.  Here  the  measure  met  with  opposi- 
tion from  Tait  of  Georgia  who  moved  "to  postpone  the  further 
consideration  thereof  until  the  fourth  day  of  July  next."  His 
objection,  he  explained,  was  not  due  to  any  opposition  to  "the 
admission  of  this  State  into  the  Union,  but  on  the  ground  that 
there  was  not  sufficiently  authentic  information  that  its  popula- 
tion was  forty  thousand,  as  stated  from  conjecture,  or  even  that 
its  population  was  sufficient  to  entitle  it  to  a  representative  in 
Congress."  Morrow  of  Ohio,  Talbot  of  Kentucky,  and  Barbour 
of  Virginia  "replied,  and  opposed  the  postponement,  believing 
the  evidence  on  this  head  to  be  so  strong  as  to  admit  of  no 
doubt."  This  motion  produced  the  only  record  vote  on  the  bill 
in  either  house,  but  only  four  senators,  Daggett  of  Connecticut, 
King  and  Sanford  of  New  York,  and  Tait  voted  in  favor  of 
postponement. 

According  to  Pope,  "the  application  of  the  three  per  cent, 
to  schools  instead  of  roads,  was  violently  opposed  in  the  Senate, 
as  being  altogether  for  the  benefit  of  the  state,  and  not  for  that 

^Thorpe,  Constitutions,  2  :<p68.     See  also  above,  p.  220. 


1 

—      C 

U  "" 


THE  MOVEMENT  FOR  ADMISSION  229 

of  the  United  States.  That  it  gave  to  Illinois  greater  advantages 
than  was  ever  allowed  to  any  other  state  admitted  into  the  union. 
It  was  urged  that  we  had  no  claims  to  such  preference,  that 
that  fund  was  granted  to  the  other  states  with  a  view  of  raising 
the  price  of  the  public  lands."  These  objections  were  answered 
by  the  Kentucky  senators,  Crittenden  and  Talbot,  by  Burrill  of 
Rhode  Island,  and  by  Morrow,  their  arguments  being  along  lines 
similar  to  those  followed  by  Pope  in  his  support  of  this  feature 
in  the  house.  The  "one  great  objection  to  emigrating  to  new 
countries,"  they  contended,  "was  the  want  of  the  means  of  edu- 
cation. Apply  this  money  to  schools  and  that  objection  will  be 
removed,  and  then  thousands  will  go  who  would  otherwise  stay. 
In  this  manner  they  proved  that  the  United  States  would  gain 
rather  than  lose."  The  provision  in  question,  Pope  wrote, 
"passed  by  a  great  majority,  and  has  given  a  character  to  Illi- 
nois that  nothing  else  could  have  effected.  Almost  every  man 
agrees  that  it  will  greatly  promote  our  prosperity."254 

The  question  of  the  northern  boundary  was  also  raised  in  the 
senate  apparently,  for  Pope  wrote  that  "some  jealousy  was  felt 
against  our  gaining  so  much  territory  north,  say  sixty  miles." 
This  opposition  could  not  have  been  very  extensive,  however, 
for  there  is  no  record  of  a  vote  on  the  question.  Just  which  of 
the  differences  between  the  final  act  and  the  original  bill  were 
embodied  in  the  senate  amendments  cannot  be  determined,  but 
Pope  wrote  that  these  amendments  were  unimportant.  Possibly 
it  was  at  this  time  that  a  section  was  added  providing  that  the 
part  of  Illinois  territory  not  included  in  the  boundaries  of  the 
proposed  state  should  be  attached  to  the  territory  of  Michigan. 
At  the  close  of  the  discussion  the  committee  rose  and  reported 
the  bill  with  the  amendments,  and  on  the  following  day,  April  14, 
it  was  read  the  third  time  and  passed  without  division.  In  the 
house,  the  senate  amendments  were  referred  to  a  select  com- 
mittee headed  by  Pope  which  on  the  fifteenth  "reported  the 
agreement  of  the  committee  to  the  said  amendments,  and  the 
amendments  were  then  concurred  in  by  the  House."  The  bill 
then  went  to  the  president,  who  approved  it  on  April  18,  1818. 

""Intelligencer,  May  6,  1818. 

•r 


230  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

If  the  hypothesis  be  correct  that  those  behind  the  movement 
were  trying  to  outrun  Missouri  in  the  race  for  statehood,  they 
had  won  the  first  heat.  The  first  petitions  from  Missouri  asking 
for  statehood  were  received  in  the  house  on  January  8,  eight 
days  before  Pope  presented  the  Illinois  memorial.  These,  with 
a  petition  presented  February  2,  were  laid  on  the  table;  but 
when  still  more  petitions  were  received  on  March  6,  they  were 
all  referred  to  a  select  committee  of  which  Scott,  the  Missouri 
delegate,  was  chairman.  Not  until  April  3  did  this  committee 
report  a  bill  for  an  enabling  act  and  it  was  then  too  late  to  hope 
for  its  passage  at  that  session.  If  the  proponents  of  statehood 
in  Illinois  were  to  keep  the  lead,  however,  it  was  necessary  that 
the  census  returns  show  a  population  of  forty  thousand.  Fur- 
thermore if  the  antislavery  men  were  to  obtain  a  constitution 
such  as  they  wished,  they  had  next  to  secure  a  majority  of  dele- 
gates to  the  convention  who  would  be  favorable  to  their  views. 
Illinois  had  a  lively  campaign  in  prospect. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   CONVENTION    CAMPAIGN 

When  the  movement  for  admission  to  statehood  was  inaugu- 
rated in  Illinois,  in  November,  1817,  it  was  "at  first  little  thought 
of"  and  Cook  himself  says  that  his  early  remarks  on  the  subject 
"were  thought  to  be  the  effusions  of  visionary  hopes."  It  is 
quite  possible  that  this  attitude,  together  with  the  suddenness 
with  which  the  proposition  was  sprung  upon  them,  explains  the 
unanimity  of  the  members  of  the  legislature  in  voting  for  the 
memorial.  As  time  passed,  however,  and  favorable  news  began 
to  arrive  from  Washington,  the  movement  attracted  more  atten- 
tion and  as  will  be  seen,  more  opposition  as  well. 

At  first  the  prospect  of  statehood  evoked  some  pleasurable 
anticipations.  At  the  Washington's  birthday  celebration  in  Ben- 
nett's tavern  at  Kaskaskia,  February  22,  1818,  one  of  the  toasts 
was  to  "The  Territory  of  Illinois — May  she  rise  refulgent  from 
the  shackles  of  a  colonial  government,  and  shine  in  the  Federal 
Union."  The  Intelligencer,  which  gave  an  account  of  this  din- 
ner, noted  in  the  usual  reprint  of  the  proceedings  of  congress, 
that  the  Illinois  bill  had  been  introduced  in  the  house  of  repre- 
sentatives. Commenting  on  this  measure  "so  important  to  the 
citizens  of  this  territory,"  the  editors  declared  that  it  "will  in 
all  probability  finally  pass."  One  week  later,  March  4,  the 
Intelligencer  published  Pope's  letter  of  January  21,  expressing 
"strong  hopes"  of  the  passage  of  the  bill.  "A  moment  of  enjoy- 
ment is  grateful  to  an  anxious  people,"  said  the  editors.  "Let  us 
therefore  enjoy  the  pleasing  intelligence  which  Mr.  Pope's  letter 
communicates  relative  to  our  obtaining  a  state  government.  His 
hopes  that  the  bill  will  pass,  which  we  find  has  been  read  a  second 

(231) 


232  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

time,  certainly  is  cheering  to  us  all  who  are  friendly  to  a  free 
government."256 

March  u,  the  bill  itself  was  published  in  the  paper,  with  the 
comment  that  it  "will  pass,  we  have  no  doubt."  Six  weeks  later, 
April  2Q.  the  readers  were  informed  that  the  measure  had  passed 
the  house  and  that  the  elections  for  representatives  in  the  con- 
vention were  fixed  for  the  first  Monday  in  July  and  the  two  fol- 
lowing days,  while  the  convention  itself  was  to  meet  the  first 
Monday  in  August.  The  next  issue  of  the  paper  announced 
the  passage  of  the  bill  in  the  senate,  and  the  act  as  finally  approved 
by  the  president  was  published  in  full  in  the  issue  of  May  20. 
Commenting  upon  the  measure  in  one  of  his  letters,  Pope  wrote : 
"Its  success  will  have  a  great  influence  on  the  emigration  to 
that  country.  I  cannot  describe  the  interest  Illinois  awakens  in 
the  minds  of  the  Atlantic  people.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  hazard- 
ing the  opinion  that  next  season  will  add  greatly  to  our  popula- 
tion." The  act  attracted  attention  in  a  neighboring  state  also. 
The  Kentucky  Argus,  in  announcing  its  passage  said:  "The 
agricultural  and  mercantile  advantages  of  this  state  will  render 
it  a  star  of  the  first  magnitude  in  our  constellation  of  free 

states We  hail  thee,  sister  Illinois,  and  are  ready  to 

welcome  thee  into  our  happy  Union."  The  editors  of  the  Kas- 
kaskia  paper  celebrated  the  passage  of  the  enabling  act  by  chang- 
ing its  name  from  The  Western  Intelligencer  to  The  Illinois  In- 
telligencer. "We  have  made  this  change,"  they  wrote,  "believ- 
ing it  to  be  a  more  appropriate  name,  in  as  much  as  it  is  the 
same  establishment  from  which  the  first  paper  eminated  in  the 
territory,  and  more  particularly  as  we  shall  soon  go  into  a  state 
under  the  name  of  Illinois."258 

The  same  issue  of  the  paper  which  contained  information  on 
the  passage  of  the  enabling  bill  by  the  senate,  announced  the  can- 
didacy of  Elias  K.  Kane  "for  the  Convention  from  the  county  of 
Randolph"  and  that  of  Daniel  P.  Cook  "for  Congress  to  represent 
us  in  the  Lower  House."  The  convention  campaign  began  at 
least  two  months  earlier,  however,  for  the  Intelligencer  of  March 

^Intelligencer,  February  25,  March  4,  April  22,  1818. 
**Ibid.,  April  22  to  May  27,  1818. 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN  233 

ii,  in  which  the  bill  was  first  printed,  contained  an  editorial  on 
the  importance  of  the  election  of  members  of  the  convention :  "In 
this  election,  party  and  private  feeling  should  alike  be  suspended, 
and  the  public  interest  alone  should  be  the  polestar  of  every  voter. 
....  Let  not  a  difference  of  opinion  on  one  particular  and 
unimportant  point,  influence  you  to  reject  men,  whose  reading, 
and  whose  experience,  qualifies  them  for  so  arduous  and  impor- 
tant an  undertaking ;  for  although  you  may  find  men  enough  who 
will  agree  to  support  any  measure  to  secure  their  election ;  yet  it  is 
not  on  any  one  measure  alone,  that  the  public  interest  will  depend. 
No!  it  depend [s]  on  many.  Then  let  us  urge  you  to  elect  those 
men,  who  are  best  qualified  to  decide  on  all  measures — and  not 
suffer  the  ambitious,  without  merit,  to  use  their  flexibility,  to 
the  injury  of  intelligent  men,  and  the  public  weal."257 

The  advice  of  the  editors  as  to  party  feeling  may  have  been 
heeded,  for  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  political  factions  played 
even  as  slight  a  part  in  this  election  as  they  had  in  the  territorial 
elections ;  but  the  "one  particular  and  unimportant  point,"  which 
was  doubtless  the  slavery  question,  was  the  only  real  issue  of 
the  campaign.  Because  of  the  existing  situation,  however,  this 
was  not  the  clear-cut  issue  as  to  whether  Illinois  should  be  a 
free  or  a  slave  state.  It  involved  also  the  questions  of  what  to 
do  with  existing  slavery,  of  the  validity  of  the  indentures  based 
on  the  territorial  law,  and  of  the  continuance  of  the  indenture 
system.  Congress,  moreover,  in  the  enabling  act,  directed  that 
the  constitution  of  the  new  state  should  not  be  repugnant  to 
the  Ordinance  of  1787,  and  this  enabled  some  of  the  leaders, 
ignoring  all  questions  of  interpretation,  to  claim  that  the  matter 
was  settled.  As  a  result,  no  simple  classification  can  cover  the 
situation  with  reference  to  the  slavery  question.  There  were  some 
who  favored  unrestricted  slavery  for  the  new  state,  there  were 
some  who  would  at  once  wipe  out  every  vestige  of  the  institu- 
tion, but  most  of  the  politicians  and  voters  appear  to  have  occu- 
pied a  variety  of  positions  between  these  two  extremes. 

The  campaign  of  the  extreme  proslavery  men  was  a  quiet  one 

m  Intelligencer,  May  6,  March  1 1,  1818. 


234  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

and  took  the  form  of  urging  delay,  doubtless  with  the  expecta- 
tion that  congress  could  be  induced  to  remove  the  restriction, 
Some,  however,  feeling  that  they  could  not  be  bound  by  an  ordi- 
nance in  the  making  of  which  they  had  had  no  part,  would  have 
ignored  the  slavery  article.  "The  United  States,"  wrote  an 
Englishman  familiar  with  the  eastern  part  of  the  territory, 
"  .  .  .  .  has  forbidden  Slavery,  according  to  its  Ordinance  for 
the  Government  of  the  North  Western  Territory.  But  the 
people  here  are  utterly  regardless  of  ordinances,  and  will  take 
the  subject  into  their  own  hands,  and  say  they  will  make  a  treaty 
with  Congress  as  an  independent  State."258  No  communications 
openly  advocating  unrestricted  slavery  were  published  in  the 
Intelligencer  during  the  campaign,  and  arguments  in  favor  of 
the  institution  put  forth  by  this  faction  can  only  be  inferred 
from  the  answers  of  those  opposed  to  it. 

The  campaign  over  slavery  really  began,  as  has  been  seen, 
with  the  attempt  to  repeal  the  indenture  law  in  the  last  sessjon 
of  the  territorial  legislature,  but  it  was  only  as  the  passage  of 
the  enabling  bill  became  a  probability  that  the  issue  came  to  be 
connected  with  the  selection  of  representatives  to  the  convention. 
As  early  as  Aj)ril  I,  £o£>k  opened  up  the  subject  in  the  Intelli- 
gencer with  a  communication  over  the  signature  '^ 


"The  certainty,"  he  wrote,  "of  our  obtaining  leave  to  form  a  state 
government,  in  a  short  time,  induces  me  to  call  the  public  atten- 
tion to  that  question  which  some  call  the  'great  desideratum' 
with  the  people,  I  mean  the  question  of  slavery.  This  question, 
which  is  now  convulsing  the  public  mind,  presents  itself  hi  differ- 
ent shapes,  to  different  characters  .....  Our  country  is  thinly 
settled,  and  the  great  desire  is,  to  see  it  filled.  The  cry  is,  'admit 
slavery  and  the  forests  will  immediately  be  converted  into  the 
cultivated  habitations  of  men.'  The  beast  of  prey  will  relinquish 
his  abode  to  that  of  domestic  utility.  Such  is  the  beguiling  lan- 
guage of  sophistry,  and  such  the  fanaticism  of  her  followers. 
But  where  the  calm  voice  of  reason  has  reached  the  intellectual 
ear,  sophistry  has  been  invariably  disarmed,  and  an  opposition 
to  slavery  has  been  universally  excited.  And  first,  the  assertion 
'that  slavery  would  increase  the  tide  of  emigration/  is  flatly 

""Ogg,  Fordham's  Personal  Narrative,  221. 


The  Illinois  Intelligencer. 


r.fi         ,   .  ,     .  .-, 


i./.    •    HIM!,  r  im   !i..i.-l   »t'v   ,,iv 
..I     V\  1,i*iii|-»«,    this    *ii!i    t< 

X«.  MM. 

J  \\IKSMON1SOK,. 

Hy  IW  |-t.  .i,|.  ...i-  41_lO 

I.  >-.!  Ml  MK.K1S. 

:•..,-:•,,./  ,'.•  <;,.,•/  /,..,, 'OAVr. 


I'll..,  (.»<•  I.  J  mir^  M,xirec,    P«. 

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,  I  ,rr  ,.i,,t  nuke  known,  l!wl  pub- 
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[Original  owned  by  St.  Louis  Mercantile  Library] 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN  235 

denied.  We  all  know  that  the  emigration  from  the  Eastern 
and  Northern  states  has  been  far  greater  to  every  part  of  the 
Western  country,  than  from  the  Southern.  We  know  that  those 
states  are  possessed  of  a  greater  population,  and  will  therefore 
admit  of  greater  emigration;  and  our  emigration  has  been 
mostly  from  the  former Many  are  in  favor  of  admit- 
ting slavery  because  it  is  already  admitted  in  some  of  our  sister 
states — they  say  that  it  will  render  them  less  dangerous  if  they 
are  dispersed  all  over  the  nation.  Such  may  be  the  fact  for  a 
moment. — But  who  can  reason  and  deny  that  they  will  ultimately 
become  more  dangerous  than  if  concentrated  to  narrow  limits." 

After  presenting  at  some  length  the  economic  and  social  dis- 
advantages of  slavery,  "for  the  purpose  of  attempting  to  prove 
the  impolicy  of  wishing  to  have  slavery  in  our  state,"  the  writer 
declared  that  "the  friends  of  this  measure  must  doubtless  fail. 
By  the  compact  between  Virginia  and  Congress,  it  is  provided 
expressly,  that  'there  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary 
servitude  in  the  territory,'  and  this  provision  is  made  'unalter- 
able/ except  with  the  consent,  both  of  congress  and  the  people 

and  this  state After  the  expression  of  the  policy,  both 

of  Congress  and  Virginia,  can  we  suppose  that  a  change  of  that 
policy  is  likely  to  be  affected?  It  seems  improbable.  Let  us 
then  drop  the  hobby — let  us  all  unite  in  trying  to  obtain  the 
best  constitution  we  can,  and  put  the  question  of  slavery  to 
rest."259-  It  is  significant  that  the  communication  contains  no 
reference  to  indentured  servitude  or  to  the  slavery  already  exist- 
ing in  Illinois. 

Commenting  on  this  communication  the  editors  declared  slav- 
ery to  be  "a  subject  which  the  people  are  greatly  interested  in — 
they  should  examine  it  deliberately  and  thoroughly  before  they 
form  an  opinion. — Some  would  oppose  it  from  popular  motives, 
and  others,  doubtless,  from  principle.  And  on  the  other  hand, 
we  believe  that  the  most  of  the  advocates  for  the  admission  of 
slavery  in  this  territory,  are  candidly  of  the  opinion  that  it  would 
tend  very  much  to  draw  the  tide  of  emigration  hither.  What- 
ever the  people  shall  dispassionately  say  on  the  subject,  we  will 

J5*Cqok  evidently  confused  the  Ordinance  of  1787  with  the  Virginia  act 
of  cession.  See  above,  p.  181,  183. 


236  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

acquiesce  in  without  a  murmur,  and  for  that  purpose,  we  invite 
investigation.  Our  columns  will  be  open  as  well  to  the  friends 
of  the  measure,  as  the  opponents."280 

Two  weeks  later  appeared  a  communication  signed  "Caution" 
and  dated  at  "Silver  creek,  St.  Clair  county,  March  29th,  1818," 
before  the  appearance  of  Cook's  article.  This  writer,  though 
opposed  to  slavery,  apparently  differed  with  the  other  antislav- 
ery  leaders  as  to  the  expediency  of  bringing  on  the  contest  at  that 
time.  Besides  expressing  doubts  as  to  the  "sufficiency  of  men  of 
talents  and  political  experience  to  form  a  constitution"  and  as  to 
the  benefits  of  statehood  in  general  under  existing  circumstances, 
he  propounded  the  following  query:  "In  equity  ought  not  our 
constitution  to  be  formed  as  well  for  the  future  emigrant,  as  for 
the  present  settler  ?  And  does  not  the  influx  begin  to  flow  from 
a  different  channel  than  it  did  formerly?  I  mean  from  the 
northern  states  and  of  people  opposed  to  a  certain  toleration, 
which  will  be  the  grand  question  at  the  election  for  members  of 
the  convention  .....  Whether  would  members  chosen  now, 
or  members  chosen  in  1823  be  most  in  favor  of  the  toleration  of 
slavery?"  Answering  his  own  question,  he  declared  that: 
"Our  future  population  will  be  principally  from  the  northern 
states,  and  avowed  enemies  to  slavery.  The  wealthy  southern 
planter,  will  not  part  with  the  plantation  Gods,  which  he  wor- 
ships, starves  and  whips,  for  the  blessings  of  the  western  woods, 
while  we  are  a  territory,  and  doubtful  as  to  the  future  toleration 
of  slavery.  To  those  that  are  uninterested,  I  need  not  say  a 
word  as  to  the  horrors  of  slavery,  and  to  those  who  are,  they 
would  be  words  thrown  away.  Butjl^  caution  the  enemies  of 
this  hellish  system  against  the  fascinating  bate  of  'state  govern- 
ment' at  present,  although,  it  might  be  doubtful  if  at  this  time 
a  majority  could  be  had  in  favor  of  the  barter  of  human  flesh, 
and  placing  a  part  of  mankind  on  an  equality  with  brutes;  yet, 
a  few  years  patience,  in  our  present  state,  will  certainly  prepon- 
derate the  scale  in  favor  of  humanity  and  freedom."261 

^Intelligencer,  April 


Ibid.,  April  I5,j8i8. 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN  237 

The  editors  of  the  Intelligencer  replied  to  "Caution"  in  the 
same  number,  and  Cook  answered  in  the  issue  of  the  following 
week.  In  both  replies  the  advantages  of  statehood  were  set 
forth,  stress  being  laid  on  the  opportunity  it  offered  for  securing 
internal  improvements  and  for  putting  an  end  to  the  judiciary 
troubles.  Cook  made  no  reference,  however,  to  that  part  of  the 
argument  relating  to  slavery  and  the  prospects  of  the  increase  of 
antislavery  sentiment  by  immigration,  while  the  editors  merely 
said  that,  in  spite  of  the  disastrous  results  of  the  judiciary  diffi- 
culties, "friend  Caution  would  beseech  us  to  wait  five  years,  till 
his  brothers  of  the  north  could  come  in  with  their  notions  and 
make  a  constitution  for  us.  We  like  the  northern  emigration, 
but  we  don't  think  it  proper  to  wait  for  them  exclusively  to 
frame  our  constitution." 

A  statement  made  by  Cook  in  his  reply  to  "Caution"  throws 
light  on  the  form  which  the  campaign  was  taking :  "The  oppo- 
sition which  some  are  making  to  our  going  into  a  state  govern- 
ment, is  as  I  understand  it,  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  elec- 
tion of  men  to  the  convention,  who  are  in  favor  of  our  now 
framing  a  constitution,  but  to  promote  the  election  of  men  who 
will  decide  in  favor  of  postponing  that  work  to  a  future  period. 
It  is  as  I  remarked  in  the  commencement  to  oppose  this  idea  that 
I  venture  before  the  public.  If  we  should  have  it  in  our  power 
to  elect  a  convention,  we  should  certainly  know  beforehand  what 
the  elected  will  do  on  this  subject.  If  the  advantages  of  a  state 
government  are  worth  struggling  for,  I  should  certainly  recom- 
mend the  election  of  men  who  will  favor  such  a  decision  when 
in  the  convention.  And  if  our  bill  do  not  pass,  I  should  also 
recommend  the  election  of  a  Delegate  who  will  favor  its  pas- 
sage at  the  next  session  of  congress."  The  advocates  of  delay 
whom  Cook  had  in  mind,  as  will  appear  later,  were  probably  the 
proslavery  rather  than  the  antislavery  men. 

Another  opponent  of  slavery  from  St.  Clair  county,  writing 
under  the  signature  of  "Candor,"  in  a  communication  dated  April 
25,  took  exception  to  Cook's  theory  that  the  slavery  question  was 
settled  by  the  ordinance.  This,  he  contended,  w^>uld  be  a  "sure 


238  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

plan  to  lull  the  people  to  sleep,  and  conteract  the  principle  for 
which  he  [Cook]  would  seem  to  contend."  "Candor's"  position 
was  that  "the  Ordinance  of  Congress  and  cession  of  Virginia 
could  only  govern  us  whilst  a  territory.  .  .  .  The  principle 
was  never  doubted  in  forming  the  constitutions  for  the  states 
of  Ohio  and  Indiana,  that  they  might  either  tolerate  or  prohibit 
slavery;  and  that  if  the  matter  were  passed  over  in  silence,  slaves 
might  then  be  imported  with  impunity ;  for  the  ordinance  for  the 
government  of  the  north  western  territory  would  no  longer  be 
binding,  but  merely  a  dead  letter,  superceded  by  the  constitution. 
In  this  manner  it  would  be  decided  in  a  court  of  law  or  equity. 
The  last  named  states  made  the  exclusion  of  slaves,  leading  fea- 
tures of  their  constitutions :  We  doubt  the  f  ramers  of  these  were 
as  wise  and  as  capable  of  explaining  our  jurisprudence,  as  we 
could  expect  to  find  men  in  this  territory.  Yet  here  in  this 
secluded  corner,  we  find  people  start  up  and  gravely  tell  us,  that 
it  would  be  unnecessary  trouble;  that  these  men  did  not  under- 
stand the  matter  as  well  as  they  do."  A  great  majority  of  the 
people,  he  contended,  were  "opposed  to  the  toleration  of  slavery; 
yet  I  fear  this  majority  will  be  defeated,  by  the  cunning  of  those 
who  have  a  contrary  interest ;  and  where  interest  is  opposed,  the 
public  good  is  too  often  forgotten.  On  people  of  this  descrip- 
tion, I  would  advise  to  be  kept  a  scrutinizing  eye."  The  writer 
was  opposed,  therefore,  to  dropping  the  hobby,  for  he  considered 
it  to  be  "the  hobby  by  which  we,  and  our  posterity,  are  either  to 
be  happy  or  miserable.  In  electing  men  to  form  a  constitution, 
we  may  find  those  as  capable  among  the  opposers,  as  among  the 
friends  of  slavery."262 

The  best  opportunity  for  those  favorable  to  delay,  whether  for 
or  against  slavery,  came  in  June,  when  the  results  of  the  census 
were  made  known.  Governor  Edwards  appointed  the  first  com- 
missioners for  the  taking  of  the  census  on  January  9,  two  days 
after  the  act  was  passed,  and  by  the  nineteenth  they  had  been 
appointed  in  all  but  three  counties.  On  March  n  and  13,  ap- 
pointments were  made  for  Washington  and  Jackson,  and  on  May 
1 8  for  Franklin,  but  the  man  selected  for  Franklin  refused  to 

""Intelligencer,  April  22,  May  6,  1818. 


fr   4 

?    ^ 


A.  LAND  GRANT 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN  239 

serve,  and  the  final  appointment  was  not  made  until  June  14, 
two  weeks  after  the  returns  were  due.  The  pay  was  small,  and 
most  of  the  men  appointed  were  local  politicians,  men  who  had 
held  nothing  higher  than  county  offices.  The  only  one  of  greater 
prominence  was  Samuel  Omelveny  of  Pope,  a  member  of  the 
house  of  representatives  at  the  time  of  his  appointment.  Two 
were  young  men  who  had  held  no  offices  themselves  but  whose 
fathers  were  in  politics — William  Cullom  of  Crawford  and 
William  Moore  of  St.  Clair.  For  them  and  a  number  of  others 
the  taking  of  the  census  was  the  beginning  of  a  political  career. 

There  were  not  enough  returns  in  by  the  tenth  of  June  for 
the  Intelligencer  to  give  an  estimate  of  the  territorial  population. 
A  week  later,  however,  the  paper  published  a  statement  supplied 
by  the  secretary,  showing  a  total  population,  for  all  the  counties 
except  Franklin,  of  only  34,620.  It  was  obvious  that  the  returns 
from  Franklin  county  would  not  bring  the  total  up  to  forty 
thousand.  There  was  a  chance,  however,  that  the  supplementary 
act  might  yet  save  the  day,  and  the  editors  of  the  paper  expressed 
the  hope  that("the  honest  vigilance  of  the  Commissioners  author- 
[i]sed  to  take  the  census  will  not  be  suffered  to  sleep  so  long 
as  our  population  is  found  increasing.'^  Four  weeks  later,  July 
15,  the  paper  contained  another  communication  from  the  secre- 
tary dated  July  6,  which  indicates  that  the  reliability  of  even 
these  meager  returns  was  open  to  question.  "It  appears,"  he 
wrote,  "that  we  have  not  yet  the  population  required  to  form 
a  constitution  and  state  government,  which  with  the  repeated 
reports  of  official  abuse  on  the  part  of  some  of  the  commissioners 
employed  in  taking  our  territorial  census,  induces  me  to  renew 
to  them  your  just  request,  that  they  proceed  in  the  discharge 
of  their  duties  with  honest  vigilance,  and  make  additional 
returns  to  my  office  on  or  before  the  first  Monday  in  August 
next.  We  are  told  that  some  commissioners  have  neglected  to 
take  even  the  citizens  of  their  respective  counties;  while  others 
with  a  zeal  unbecoming  their  situation,  have  taken  some  people 
two  or  three  times,  and  have  placed  on  their  lists  the  mere  pas- 
sengers through  their  counties,  and  even  the  territory." 

The  secretary  expressed  disbelief  in  these  reports,  but  a  com- 
parison of  the  returns  with  those  of  the  United  States  census 


240  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

of  1820  bears  out,  to  some  extent,  the  charge  of  padding.  The 
return  for  Gallatin  county  was  3,256  which  is  101  more  than  the 
United  States  census  figures  for  the  same  county.  Undoubtedly 
the  permanent  population  of  the  county  increased  during  the  two 
years,  and,  as  Shawneetown  was  a  port  of  entry  for  emigrants, 
it  is  probable  that  many  were  included  in  the  census  who  were 
merely  passing  through.  In  Washington  county  also,  a  similar 
situation  appears,  the  return  of  a  population  of  1,707  being  190 
above  the  figures  of  the  United  States  census  of  1820.  This 
county  even  more  than  Gallatin  was  attracting  permanent  settlers 
during  the  two  years  and  there  is  ample  reason  for  believing  that 
many  travelers  along  the  Vincennes  road,  which  passed  through 
the  county,  were  included  in  the  census.  The  returns  for  Madi- 
son county  were  padded  in  a  different  way.  To  his  regular 
report  the  commissioner  added,  by  way  of  postscript,  that  "from 
good  information,"  there  were  680  souls  at  Fort  Crawford,  70 
at  Fort  Edwards,  and  80  at  Fort  Clark,  "making  in  the  whole 
5466  souls  within  the  boundary  of  Madison  County."  Fort 
Crawford  was  located  at  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin  river  and 
thus  north  of  the  Illinois  boundary.263  The  enabling  act  had 
stipulated  that  there  should  be  forty  thousand  inhabitants 
"within  the  proposed  state;"  yet  these  figures  were  included  in 
the  secretary's  statement. 

Even  before  the  returns  were  published,  a  cor  respondent  jwho 
wrote  over  the  signature  of  "Anticipator"  sent  a  communica- 
tion to  the  Intelligencer,  in  which  he  maintained  "that  it  is  the 
spirit  of  the  law  for  the  members  of  the  body,  to  be  the  judges 
of  the  fact — that  if  we  have  not  the  population  called  for,  it  will 
be  in  the  power  of  the  convention,  not  only  to  form  an  ordinance, 
but  a  constitution  for  the  consideration  of  the  people."  In  the 
same  issue  in  which  the  statement  of  population  was  published, 
the  editors  announced  that,  "the  fact  that  our  population  will  not 
amount  to  40,000,  having  become  generally  known,  we  under- 
stand that  some  doubts  are  entertained  as  to  the  propriety  of 
electing  members  of  the  Convention. — The  diversity  of  opinions 

**The  original  schedules  are  found  in  the  secretary  of  state's  office,  but  see 
appendix,  p.  318-319.  See  James,  Territorial  Records,  54-58. 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN  241 

which  prevailed  on  this  subject,  was  such,  as  to  induce  us  to 
enquire  of  Mr.  Pope,  upon  his  arrival,  as  to  what  were  his  views 
on  the  subject;  and  he  gives  it  as  his  opinion,  that  it  will  be 
proper  to  elect  a  convention,  and  for  them  to  meet.  And  if  it 
should  appear  from  the  returns  made,  that  we  have  not  40,000, 
then  for  the  Convention  to  pass  an  Ordinance,  authorising  an 
election  for  members  of  convention  after  the  last  returns  shall 
be  made,  which  are  to  be  in  the  first  week  of  December  next. 
And  if  we  then  have  40,000  souls,  that  such  Convention  will 
have  the  right  to  frame  a  Constitution."26* 

Pope's  opinion  was  not  allowed  to  pass  unchallenged.  The 
next  issue  of  the  Intelligencer  contained  a  communication  from 
"A  friend  to  enquiry"  which  maintained  not  only  that  no  special 
weight  should  be  attached  to  that  opinion  but  "that  his  [Pope's] 
connexion  with  the  law  itself,  however  correct  his  opinions  are 
in  the  general,  would  lead  him  more  readily  into  false  reasoning, 
than  an  individual  less  interested."  The  writer  reached  the  con- 
clusion, therefore,  "that  the  people  are  in  the  present  instance 
to  enquire  and  judge  for  themselves  in  relation  to  their  powers ; 
and  that  their  enquiries  may  enable  them  to  know,  and  to  act 
within  the  provisions  of  the  law  is  my  most  earnest  wish.  For, 
I  do  consider  it  a  matter  of  much  doubt  whether  a  constitution, 
not  within  the  law  established  for  our  guide,  would  be  anything 
more  than  a  dead  letter,  though  it  should  receive  a  subsequent 
ratification  by  congress."  From  the  reply  of  the  editors  in  the 
same  issue  and  from  a  second  communication  from  "A  friend 
to  enquiry,"  which  was  published  after  the  elections  had  taken 
place,  it  appears  that  the  points  at  issue  in  the  controversy  were : 
whether  the  enabling  act  required  a  population  of  forty  thousand 
at  the  time  of  deciding  the  question  of  the  expediency  of  form- 
ing a  state  government  or  merely  when  the  constitution  was 
framed;  and  whether  or  not  any  action  contrary  to  the  enabling 
act  would  be  binding  on  the  people  of  the  state,  even  if  accepted 
by  congress.  A  third  article  from  the  same  correspondent,  pub- 
lished on  July  22,  shows  his  opposition  to  the  exclusion  of  slav- 
ery, which  may  explain  his  advocacy  of  delay. 

"^Intelligencer,  June  10,  June  17,  1818. 


242  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

Before  taking  up  the  arguments  on  slavery  advanced  by  "A 
friend  to  enquiry"  it  will  be  well  to  consider  those  of  another 
writer  which  appeared  in  the  Intelligencer  for  June_l7  and  July 
r._  By  far  the  ablest  communications  which  appeared  in  this 
campaign  were  those  sent  in  from  Madison  county  under  date  of 
May,  1818,  by  a  writer  who  signed  himself  "Agis."  The  author 
was  evidently  a  man  of  culture  and  of  wide  experience,  not  only 
in  different  parts  of  the  United  States  but  in  England  as  well,  and 
his  point  of  view  was  clearly  that  of  an  outsider.  All  this 
establishes  the  probability  that  the  writer  was  none  other  than 
Edward_Cole_s,  destined  to  be  the  second  governor  of  the  state 
and  a  leader  of  the  antislavery  forces  in  the  struggle  of  1824. 
Coles  was  a  Virginian,  an  owner  of  slaves  by  inheritance,  and 
yet  an  abolitionist  of  the  extreme  type.  From  1809  to  1815  he 
served  as  private  secretary  to  President  Madison;  when  he 
resigned  in  the  latter  year,  he  intended  to  take  his  slaves  to  the 
northwest  and  set  them  free.  In  the  following  spring,  however, 
he  was  selected  by  the  president  for  a  special  mission  to  Russia ; 
later  he  traveled  in  Germany,  France,  and  England.  On  April 
13,  1818,  he  received  from  Madison  a  letter  of  introduction  to 
Governor  Edwards  and  probably  he  set  out  for  Illinois  at  once. 
If  so  he  could  easily  have  been  in  Edwardsville,  his  future  home, 
by  the  middle  of  May.  It  is  certain  that  he  visited  Kaskaskia 
in  July,  during  the  session  of  the  convention  and  interested  him- 
self in  the  contest  over  slavery  at  that  time. 

The  first  of  the  communications  of  "Agis"  begins  as  fol- 
lows:205 

Fellow  Citizens — As  the  period  cannot  now  be  very 
distant  when  you  will  be  called  upon  to  form,  by  your 
representatives,  a  constitution  of  government  for  your- 
selves and  for  your  posterity,  I  trust  you  will  not  deem 
it  premature  or  improper  for  one,  whose  interests  are 
united  with  yours,  and  whose  warmest  wishes  are  for 
your  welfare,  to  call  your  attention  to  a  subject  of 
the  utmost  importance  to  individual  and  national  hap- 
piness— I  mean  the  momentous  question  whether  this 

^Intelligencer,  June  17,  1818.  See  also  Washburne,  Edward,  Coles,  13-45; 
extract  from  a  letter  from  Coles  to  Lippincott  about  1860,  copied  as  a  manu- 
script note  in  the  latter's  set  of  clippings  of  his  "Conflict  of  the  Century." 


EDWARD  COLES 

[From  original  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN  243 

shall  be  a  free  or  a  slave  state.  Already  have  the  advo- 
cates of  slavery  taken  the  field ;  and  one  may  frequently 
hear  them  descanting  upon  the  advantages  which  would 
attend  the  admission  of  slavery,  and  murmuring 
because  this  territory  is  not  permitted  to  enjoy  this 
inestimable  blessing  as  well  as  some  other  states  and 
territories.  "Were  slavery  admitted,"  say  they,  "the 
territory  would  be  immediately  settled;  mills,  manu- 
factories and  bridges,  would  be  erected,  and  the  whole 
country  would  wear  a  new  appearance." 

Believing,  however,  that  the  question  should  be  considered 
from  the  standpoint  of  right  rather  than  from  that  of  expe- 
diency, the  writer  maintains  with  cogent  arguments  the  injustice 
of  slavery.  Moreover  he  declares  himself  to  be  "one  of  those 
who  consider  the  present  [l]aws  of  this  territory,  admitting 
slavery  under*  certain  restrictions  &  regulations,  as  not  only 
unjust,  but  as  plainly  inconsistent  with  the  law  of  Congress 
which  declares  that  there  shall  be  'neither  slavery  nor  involuntary 
servitude'  in  this  territory."  The  arguments  of  Governor  Ed- 
wards in  favor  of  the  validity  of  the  indenture  law,  are  ably 
refuted.  "It  must  be  a  subject  of  regret  to  every  lover  of  lib- 
erty," the  writer  concludes,  "that  although  our  last  legislature 
passed  an  act  to  repeal  the  odious  law  for  the  admission  of 
slavery,  yet  the  repealing  act  has  been  defeated  by  the  veto  of 
his  excellency  the  governor.  Let  us  hail  the  approach  of  that 
period  when  we  shall  be  delivered  from  the  trammels  and 
shackles  of  territorial  bondage — when  it  shall  not  be  in  the 
power  of  an  individual,  in  whose  appointment  we  have  no  voice, 
to  set  aside  the  will  of  the  people,  as  expressed  by  their  repre- 
sentatives." 

In  his  second  number,  printed  five  days  before  the  begin- 
ning of  the  election,266  "Agis"  proceeded  "to  show  that  no  solid 
reason  can  be  produced  in  favor  of  the  expediency  of  slavery." 
His  principal  points  were;  the  danger  of  insurrection,  the  cor- 
ruption of  public  and  private  morals,  and  the  discouragement  of 
free  labor. 

But  were  slavery  admitted,  many  emigrants,  who 
now  pass  through  our  territory,  on  their  way  to  Boon's 

^Intelligencer,  July  i,  1818. 


244  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

lick,  and  other  parts  of  the  Missouri  territory,  followed 
by  a  long  concourse  of  slaves,  might  settle  in  Illinois. 
Perhaps  they  might;  and  this  is  the  most  plausible 
argument  which  has  been  adduced  in  favor  of  the 
admission  of  slavery.  Yet  for  my  own  part,  I  would 
rather  see  our  rich  meadows  and  fertile  woodlands 
inhabited  alone  by  the  wild  beasts  and  birds  of  the  air, 
than  that  they  should  ever  echo  the  sound  of  the  slave 
driver's  scourge,  or  resound  with  the  cries  of  the 
oppressed  African  I  would  rather  that  our  citizens 
should  live  fearlessly  and  contentedly  in  their  peace- 
ful and  modest  cabins,  than  that,  surrounded  by  a  host 
of  slaves,  and  inhabiting  splendid  palaces  and  gilded 
domes,  they  should  live  in  constant  apprehensions  of 
an  attack  from  those  who  are,  and  who  ought  to  be, 
their  mortal  enemies. 

People  of  Illinois!  to  you  belongs  the  decision  of 
the  important  question ;  important  as  it  relates  to  your- 
selves, but  doubly  so  as  it  regards  your  posterity.  Do 
not  give  them  occasion  to  say,  that  through  indolence, 
or  through  a  mistaken  zeal  for  public  improvements, 
you  have  fixed  upon  them  the  curse  of  slavery — a 
curse  which,  when  once  fastened  upon  your  land,  can- 
not be  removed.  To  you  it  belongs  to  say,  whether 
this  territory  shal  [sic]  be  inhabited  by  freemen  or  by 
slaves — whether  all  its  inhabitants  shall  live  in  simple 
and  happy  freedom,  or  one  half  of  them  shall  be  reduced 
to  abject  and  cruel  servitude  to  support  the  splendid 
misery  and  sickly  pomp  of  the  other  half. 

As  the  love  of  liberty  is  dear  to  your  hearts — as  you 
would  preserve  yourselves  and  your  posterity  from  the 
miserable  fate  of  the  once  opulent  inhabitants  of  St. 
Domingo — as  you  would  respect  the  commands  of 
Heaven  and  the  dictates  of  your  own  consciences,  let 
me  beseach  you  be  cautious  to  what  persons  you  con- 
fide the  important  trust  of  framing  your  state  consti- 
tution. Let  no  friend  to  slavery,  however  great  his 
talents,  enjoy  your  confidence.  In  particular,  beware 
of  those  who,  while  they  pretend  opposition  to  slavery, 
are  still  desirous  to  uphold  the  present  method  of  intro- 
ducing slaves  by  indenturing. .  This  half-way  measure 
is  satisfactory  neither  to  the  advocates  of  slavery,  nor 
to  the  friends  of  liberty.  Let  no  one  enjoy  your  con- 
fidence who  will  not  zealously  advocate  the  entire 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN  245 

exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  state.  Disregard  the 
clamor  by  which  the  friends  of  slavery  hope  to  divert 
your  attention  from  the  great  question  of  slavery  or 
freedom.  Place  your  confidence  in  men  who  are  in 
practice,  as  well  as  in  theory,  friends  to  liberty — men 
whose  interests  are  blended  with  your  own — who  have 
no  aristocratical  desires  to  gratify;  and  whose  infor- 
mation and  talents  enable  them  to  act  with  benefit  to 
their  constituents,  and  with  honor  to  themselves. 

The  third  communication  of  "A  friend  to  enquiry,"  pub- 
lished July  22,  after  the  elections  but  before  the  meeting  of 
the  convention,  is  an  argument  against  the  exclusion  of  slav- 
ery from  Illinois  as  "  a  principle  fraught  with  cruelty  and 
injustice."  Admitting  "the  abominable  principles  of  slavery" 
the  writer  desires  "to  call  the  attention  solely  to  the  most  effec- 
tual mode  of  remedying  this  just  stain  in  the  political  institU' 
tions  of  our  common  country.  That  this  is  the  end  to  which 
our  enquiries  should  at  present  be  directed,  and  not  to  the  mere 
policy  of  excluding  slavery  from  this  territory,  will  not,  I  pre- 
sume be  denied,  by  a  single  friend  to  humanity."  Replying  to 
"a  modern  writer  of  some  celebrity"  probably  "Agis,"  he  points 
out  that  "the  mere  act  of  exclusion,  will  not  emancipate  a  sin- 
gle slave"  and  advocates  a  plan  "which  in  itself,  by  remunirat- 
ing  [sic]  the  owner,  and  preparing  the  slave,  for  the  right  exer- 
cise of  his  liberty,  would  give  to  the  system  appearance  of  perfect 
justice  and  equity?  That  a  plan  of  gradual  emancipation  might 
be  rendered  subservient  to  this  purpose,  will  not  be  questioned 
after  a  moment's  enquiry.  And  I  have  no  hesitation  in  declar- 
ing, notwithstanding  the  opposition  I  may  receive  from  a  host  of 
policy  scriblers  [sic],  that  under  proper  regulations,  I  would 
sooner  see  limited  slavery  introduced  into  our  territory,  though 
the  limit  should  not  take  effect  during  the  existence  of  the  first 
generation,  than  this  exclusion  policy  so  much  spoken  of  at  pres- 
ent." After  quoting  Dr.  James  Beattie  in  favor  of  gradual 
emancipation,  he  concludes: 

Let  us  then,  instead  of  excluding  the  slave  from  our 
territory,  for  surely  that  cannot  be  good  policy  which 
is  not  in  unison  with  religion  and  humanity — let  us, 


246  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

I  say,  provide  by  our  political  regulations,  for  his  intro- 
duction and  emancipation,  under  some  such  plan  as 
that  proposed  by  Beattie.  And  let  it  be  remembered 
that  it  is  no  excuse  for  a  dereliction  of  duty  in  this 
particular,  to  say  that  we  have  never  yet  tolerated 
slavery  in  our  territory,  and  that  the  plan  for  its  aboli- 
tion has  not  been  adopted  by  the  slave  holding  states. 
On  the  contrary,  may  we  not  hope,  if  we  set  the 
example,  it  will  become  general.  And  would  it  not  be 
a  proud  triumph  to  our  posterity,  after  the  business 
of  universal  emancipation  shall  have  been  effected,  in 
tracing  the  effect  to  the  cause,  to  find  its  origin  in  the 
benevolent  policy  of  our  territory? 

In  recommending  the  communication  of  "Agis"  to  their  read- 
ers the  editors  of  the  paper  declared,  "they  are  well  worth,  to 
those  who  are  opposed  to  the  toleration  of  slavery  in  this  ter- 
ritory, an  attentive  perusal;  and  more  especially,  to  those  who 
are  in  favor  of  it."267  This  impartial  attitude  which  the  paper 
had  endeavored  to  hold  on  the  slavery  issue  was  lost,  however, 
in  the  comment  on  the  third  number  of  "A  friend  to  enquiry." 
The  arguments  of  this  writer  in  favor  of  delaying  the  move- 
ment for  statehood  had  been  vigorously  controverted  by  the 
editors,  but  his  plan  for  the  toleration  of  slavery  met  with 
their  entire  approval.  "Our  readers,"  the  editorial  runs,  "are 
respectfully  solicited  to  give  the  foregoing  essay  written  by  *A 
friend  to  enquiry',  an  attentive  and  candid  perusal.  It  breathes 
the  language  of  philanthropy,  and  is  fraught  with  much  mean- 
ing and  benevolence  of  soul,  and  must  flash  conviction  upon 
the  mind  of  every  person  who  feels  a  disposition  to  palliate 
the  condition  of  the  oppressed  African,  with  so  little  injury  to 
those,  who  by  the  laws  of  our  government,  have  unfortunately 
become  the  owners  of  slaves.  He  pleads  not  for  an  everlasting 
bondage  of  the  blacks — he  pleads  not  for  the  perpetual  security 
of  that  property  guaranteed  to  him  by  the  laws  of  the  Union. 
No — he  pleads  for  justice,  in  the  emancipation  of  those  unfor- 
tunate beings It  would  reflect  much  to  the  honor  and 

humanity  of  the  generous  sons  of  Illinois,  when  the  grand  object 
of  universal  emancipation  shall  be  effected,  to  hear  it  sounded 

""Intelligencer,  July  I,  1818. 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN 


247 


from  abroad,  that  this  godlike  and  benevolent  act  of  humanity 
originated  with  them."268 

Not  all  of  the  readers  of  the  communications  from  "A  friend 
to  enquiry"  were  so  easily  convinced  that  his  motives  were 
purely  philanthropic,  and  the  next  issue  of  the  Intelligencer 
contains  two  replies.  "Prudence"  could  see  no  good  reason  for 
bringing  "among  us  this  class  of  men  [negroes],  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  those  more  beneficial  to  society as  well  might 


GREASE  LAMP 

The  lower  receptacle  was  filled  with  grease,  a  wick  was  inserted  through 

the  small  opening,  and  it  was  the  up-to-date  lamp  of  1818. 

[Original  owned  by  Judge  Perrin,  Belleville] 

we  attempt  to  transplant  all  the  vices  and  diseases  of  the  east- 
ern states,  that  we  might  have  the  credit  of  curing  them — as 
to  bring  in  these  dusky  sons  of  Africa,  to  where  the  citizens 
do  not  want  them,  and  too  where  they  are  prohibited  by  the 
laws  of  the  U.  States."  Especially  significant  is  the  statement 
that:  "But  few,  I  think  who  read  the  labored  essay  of  'A 
Friend  to  Enquiry'  will  think,  him  actuated  alone  by  humanity. 
It  is  the  dernier  resort  of  an  expiring  party,  who  finding  that 
the  naked  hook  of  unconditional  slavery,  will  not  be  swallowed 
by  the  people,  have  adroitly  enough,  gilded  it  over  with  the  form 
of  general  humanity."  In  conclusion  the  writer  expressed  the 

"Intelligencer,  July  22,  1818. 


248  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

wish  that  "the  people  in  general,  the  convention,  and  the  con- 
vention's dictator,  in  particular,"  would  "take  into  view  the 
serious  evils  arising  from  admitting  among  us  a  host  of  free 
negroes;  and  that  with  their  schemes  of  humanity  they  would 
mix  a  little  PRUDENCE." 

The  other  reply,  by  "Independence,"  was  devoted  mainly  to 
a  rebuttal  of  the  contention  that  the  failure  'to  show  a  popula- 
tion of  forty  thousand  in  June  necessitated  the  abandonment  of 
the  movement  for  statehood.  It  contained  one  passage,  however, 
significant  of  the  motives  of  the  opposition:  "Who  are  the 
'disinterested'  so  much  spoken  of  in  a  former  piece  by  'a  friend 
to  enquiry?'  Who  have  excited  so  much  feeling  in  public  as 
the  advocates  for  the  continuance  of  our  territorial  dependency? 
What  is  the  object  in  abandoning  the  privileges  of  the  act  of 
Congress?  Is  it  not  for  the  purpose  of  delay?  Will  delay  ben- 
efit the  many  or  the  few? — As  for  'conclusive  argument,'  we 
have  not  heard  any  from  the  other  side — Of  declamation,  we 
have  heard  considerable."  Another  writer,  who  signed  him- 
self "A  citizen,"  makes  a  statement  in  the  Intelligencer  of  June 
24,  which  throws  additional  light  on  what  was  going  on  behind 
the  scenes.  "Some  think,"  he  declares,  "that  the  ordinance  of 
Congress,  and  the  law  for  our  admission  into  the  union,  ex- 
cludes us  forever,  from  being  a  slave  state.  Others,  and  men 
of  considerable  investigation,  think  differently,  and  say  that 
this  obnoxious  feature,  in  our  bill  of  rights,  may  be  expunged 

by  our  next  delegate I  am  thus  particular,,  because 

I  am  one  of  those  unbelieving  few,  who  do  not  think  that  all, 
now,  depends  on  the  convention."  Obviously  "A  citizen"  was 
not  in  favor  of  the  exclusion  of  slavery  and  was  in  favor  of 
delay. 

Some  of  those  who  advocated  dropping  the  statehood  move- 
ment for  the  time  being  may  have  hoped  to  discourage  the 
voters  from  attending  the  elections.  A  letter  from  Shawnee- 
town,  dated  June  17,  indicates  not  only  that  this  was  the  case 
and  that  the  attempt  met  with  little  success,  but  also  that  the 
lack  of  forty  thousand  inhabitants  must  have  been  fully  recog- 
nized some  time  before  the  returns  were  published.  "I  have 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN  249 

made  all  the  enquiry  possible,"  the  writer  states,  "as  to  the 
determination  of  the  people  on  the  subject  of  a  convention;  and 
from  the  best  information  I  am  able  to  get,  the  elections  on 
this  side  will  be  general.  The  additional  returns  from  some 
counties  will  be  considerable — and  a  disposition  is  evinced  by 
some,  to  form  a  constitution  at  all  events."  Two  weeks  after 
this  letter  was  written  and  in  the  last  issue  before  the  elections, 
the  Intelligencer  announced  a  hopeful  situation  as  concerned  the 
census:  "We  are  happy  to  learn  from  a  respectable  source, 
that  the  commissioner  for  taking  the  census  in  the  county  of 
Franklin,  will  probably  return  the  number  of  two  thousand  in- 
habitants. We  are  also  credibly  informed,  that  the  county  of 
Gallatin  contains  one  thousand  inhabitants,  not  yet  returned; 
and  that  the  emigration  to  the  eastern  counties  is  astonishingly 
rapid.  From  the  information  we  have  received,  it  is  probable, 
that  if  the  commissioners  for  the  several  counties  will  be  vig- 
ilant, that  our  numbers  will  increase  to  forty  thousand  by  the 
first  of  August.  We  would  therefore  recommend  to  the  com- 
missioners to  be  industrious,  and  make  returns  of  the  addi- 
tional settlers  on  the  first  Monday  in  August,  that  the  conven- 
tion may  be  enabled,  if  possible,  to  proceed  to  the  formation 
of  a  constitution." 

While  slavery  was  without  doubt  the  one  great  issue,  it  was  by 
no  means  the  only  subject  discussed  in  the  convention  campaign. 
These  discussions  as  reflected  in  communications  in  the  Intelli- 
gencer are  of  interest  not  only  for  the  part  which  they  played 
in  the  campaign,  but  also  because  of  the  effect  which  they  may 
have  had  on  the  deliberations  of  the  convention.  Some  time  in 
May,  while  the  campaign  was  in  progress,  a  second  paper  was 
established,  at  Shawneetown,  in  which  doubtless  appeared  simi^ 
lar  communications  affecting  and  reflecting  the  campaign  in  the 
eastern  part  of  the  territory.  Unfortunately  no  issues  of  this 
paper  earlier  than  October  17,  1818,  are  known  to  have  been 
preserved. 

The  Intelligencer,  in  its  editorial  of  March  n,  urged  the  im- 
portance of  electing  to  the  convention  "men  who  are  versed  in 
the  science  of  government;  men  who  have  correct  opinions  of 


250  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

human  nature,  and  who  have  an  extensive  acquaintance  with 
the  effects  which  the  various  forms  of  government  have  had 
upon  the  happiness  of  the  human  family."  This  opened  up  a 
long  drawn  out  discussion  of  the  qualifications  which  candidates 
should  have  and  of  the  sort  of  men  who  should  be  sent  to  frame 
the  constitution.  Cook,  as  has  been  seen,  urged  the  election  of 
men  of  talents  regardless  of  their  position  on  the  slavery  ques- 
tion, while  "Caution"  thought  there  were  not  enough  such  men 
in  the  territory  to  frame  the  constitution  and  hold  the  offices. 
The  most  persistent  writer  on  this  subject,  however,  was  "One 
of  the  people"  whose  first  communication  appeared  on  May  6. 
Urging  the  importance  of  having  a  constitution  so  framed  "that 
no  one  class  of  citizens  could  be  burdened  by  a  future  legislature 
more  than  any  other  class  of  citizens,"  a  constitution  that  "should 
provide  for  an  equitable  and  just  system  of  taxation,  which 
would  prevent  the  poor  from  being  taxed  or  burdened  more 
than  the  rich,  as  they  are  in  fact  at  present  in  this  territory,"  he 
pointed  out  the  necessity,  in  order  to  secure  such  a  constitution, 
of  having  it  "framed  by  men  of  intelligence,  whose  minds  are 
expanded,  whose  views  are  liberal  and  who  will  be  able  to  dis- 
cover the  practical  operation  of  those  things  which  may  be  en- 
grafted into  that  important  instrument."  The  tendency  of  un- 
qualified candidates  to  come  forward  as  volunteers  was  deplored 
and  they  were  advised  to  give  way  and  solicit  others  more  quali- 
fied to  accept  the  position. 

In  a  second  number,  published  May  13,  the  same  writer  de- 
clared that  some  opposed  sending  men  of  talents  to  the  conven- 
tion because  "  'they  could  not  be  trusted.'  ....  If  they  are 
not  of  the  same  calling,  that  is  another  objection.  'Their  interest' 
they  say,  'may  be  different  from  ours.'  Therefore,  'let  us  send 
men  of  our  own  calling,  who  will  be  governed  by  interest'  That 
is  coming  to  the  point  at  once.  And  here  it  might  be  said  with 
propriety,  that  the  pay  appears  to  be  an  object  with  some  of 
them;  for  some  have  been  known  to  enquire,  whether  the  con- 
ventioners  would  receive  any  pay!  before  they  offered  to  volun- 
teer their  services.  Men  of  narrow  contracted  minds,  who  will 
be  governed  by  the  corrupting  principle  of  self-interest,  are  the 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN  251 

last  men  in  the  world,  who  ought  to  be  elected  to  form  a  happy 
constitution  for  a  free  people.  Yet  such  it  is  believed,  are  many 
of  the  persons  who  claim  the  right  to  form  for  us  a  constitution. 
They  claim  it  upon  the  ground  that  they  are  the  oldest  settlers. 
Many  old  settlers  of  the  class  of  candidates,  appear  to  consider 
all  who  have  not  been  here  quite  so  long  as  themselves,  as  aliens; 
who  have  no  more  rights  here  than  aliens  enjoy  under  the  Eng- 
lish Monarchy."  Still  a  third  number,  appearing  the  following 
week,  presented  a  series  of  searching  questions  beginning  with 
"Can  I  do  anything  more  in  a  convention  than  to  give  my  vote?" 
which  each  of  the  would-be  candidates  was  advised  not  only  to 
answer  but  to  submit  to  the  "best  informed  men  in  the  county" 
before  deciding  to  stand  for  election. 

Immediately  after  these  articles  were  published,  another  writer, 
who  called  himself  "Anticipator"  appeared  on  the  scene  with  a 
number  of  concrete  suggestions  as  to  articles  which  should  be 
included  in  the  constitution.  Among  these  were  provisions 
against  plural  office  holding,  against  a  religious  test  for  office- 
holders, for  the  punishment  of  bribery  or  the  soliciting  of 
votes,  and  for  allowing  "all  widows  and  unmarried  females 
over  the  age  of  21  years  ....  to  vote  at  popular  elections." 
The  argument  in  favor  of  this  latter  provision  has  quite  a  modern 
ring,  although  few  advocates  of  women's  suffrage  today  would 
confine  it  to  "widows  and  unmarried  females."  "We  frequently 
see  widows,"  he  wrote,  "administering  on  estates  and  having 
charge  of  large  families.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  they 
are  some  times  interested  in  the  passage  of  particular  laws, 
which  affect  themselves,  their  children,  or  their  property.  They 
know  before  an  election,  who  will  and  who  will  not  advocate 
particular  measures. — A  single  vote  may  preponderate  the  elec- 
tion either  way.  Why  deprive  them  of  acting  in  this  case,  where 
they  are  particularly  interested,  when  their  peculiar  circumstances 
had  made  it  necessary  for  them  to  act  in  others,  which  arbitrary 
habit,  has  made  the  province  of  men?"  In  a  second  number 
"Anticipator"  took  occasion  to  condemn  "the  old  ritual  of  the 
English  common  law,  handed  down  with  little  variation,  from 


252 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


the  barbarous  age  of  Edward  IV,"  and  to  advocate  the  substitu- 
tion of  arbitration  of  disputes  for  trial  by  jury  in  all  civil  cases.268 
About  the  same  time  appeared  two  communications  from  "A 
friend  to  equal  justice"  who  considered  the  existing  system  of 
taxation,  together  with  the  requirements  of  road  work  and  mus- 
ter service,  very  oppressive  to  poor  men  and  to  young  men.  A 
rich  man  with  a  thousand  acres  of  valuable  land  paid  only  ten 


A  kind  of  vise  that  held  barrel  staves,  axe 
handles,  etc.,  for  the  knife. 

[Original  owned  by  W.  0.  Converse,  Springfield] 


dollars  taxes  a  year,  he  claimed,  while  the  poor  man  was  obliged 
to  contribute  the  equivalent  of  $28.50  in  money  or  service.  This 
he  believed  to  be  due  to  the  fact  that  the  wealthy  farmers  "have 
heretofore  been  our  law  makers"  and  now  they  "are  offering  to 
go  and  adopt  a  constitution  for  us."  Congress  having  given  the 
vote  to  all  without  regard  to  property  qualifications,  the  young 
men  and  the  poor  men  were  urged  to  improve  the  opportunity 

by  sending  "enlightened  men"  to  the  convention  instead  of  "ig- 

< 

^Intelligencer,  May  27,  June  10,  1818. 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN  253 

norant  wealthy  men"  who  would  insist  on  a  property  qualifica- 
tion for  members  of  the  legislature  and  thus  ensure  the  contin- 
uance of  the  "oppressive  system  of  taxation." 

The  arguments  of  "One  of  the  people"  and  "A  friend  to  equal 
justice"  called  out  a  reply  from  "An  old  farmer"  who  believed 
that  the  articles  over  these  signatures  were  written  by  the  same 
hand.  The  protest  against  "unqualified  candidates,"  he  consid- 
ered "to  be  a  recommendation  to  the  old  men  of  the  different 
counties  of  the  territory,  farmers  in  particular,  who  had  for- 
merly been  representatives,  'to  stay  at  home,  and  let  the  young 
ones  (who  are  always  the  wisest)  go  and  make  a  constitution  for 
them.'  Much  as  I  admire  the  modesty  of  this  young  stranger,  I 
cannot,  altogether,  come  into  his  measures.  I  presume  he  means 
that  it  is  lawyers  who  ought  to  represent  us. — I  agree  that  the 
avocations  of  the  bar,  and  a  classical  education,  particular  the 
latter,  (which  some  of  them  may  have,)  contribute  greatly  to 
store  the  mind  with  extraneous  knowledge ;  but  that  the  continual 
practice  of  chicanery,  will  qualify  a  man  for  forming  laws,  I 
deny.  Certainly,  the  constant  habit  of  public  speaking,  will  give 
the  muscles  of  his  mouth  more  elasticity,  and  he  can  learn  to 
associate  his  ideas  with  more  ease.  But,  at  the  same  time,  the 
little,  dirty  quarrels,  and  disputes,  which  his  profession  impels 
him  continually  to  take  part  in,  or  starve,  will  have  a  tendency 
to  contract  and  Yankeefy  a  mind  that  might  be  otherwise  liberal 
and  generous."  The  complicated  system  of  the  law  was  then 
attacked  and  the  writer  declared  himself  "for  trusting  to  the 
enlighted  [sic]  farmers  and  others,  who  have  the  same  object  in 
view,  to  simplify  our  laws,  and  lop  off  from  them  that  load  of 
technicalities  which  make  pack  horses  of  our  memories."  To 
the  "two  lamentable  tales  about  taxation"  he  replied  only  with 
ridicule.270 

Still  another  writer,  who  used  the  name  of  "Erin,"  in  the  pa- 
per of  June  24,  called  upon  "One  of  the  people"  to  cease  harping 
on  the  self-evident  proposition  that  able  men  should  be  sent  to 
the  convention  and  instead  to  discuss  the  principles  which  should 
be  incorporated  into  the  constitution;  "then  let  the  people  find 

""Intelligencer,  June  17,  1818. 


254  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

men  enough  learned  in  those  principles  to  adopt  them  into  being." 
One  of  the  subjects  which  he  wanted  discussed  was  "whether 
the  preachers  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  ought  to  have  a  seat  in  the 
convention  or  not.  Whether  in  all  respects,  good  men,  merely 
for  their  entering  on  that  most  interesting  business  to  mankind, 
should  be  excluded  from  a  seat  in  the  convention,  and  the  legis- 
latures arising  therefrom.  Or  whether  men,  who  say  often 
themselves,  they  are  called  to  the  pulpit  by  the  Almighty  God, 
ought  to  degrade  themselves  by  entering  into  politics."  Another 
"subject  of  much  concern  to  the  territory"  was  that  of  slavery: 
"whether  it  would  not  be  most  consonant  to  true  religion  and 
freedom,  to  allow  the  half  starved  blacks  of  the  south  to  par- 
take of  Illinois  plenty;  and  whether  it  would  not  be  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  new  state  to  permit  those  unfortunate  subjects 
of  the  southern  states  a  place  in  the  'land  of  promise :'  and  de- 
vise some  mode  of  their  gradual  emancipation;  or  whether  it 
would  not  be  better  for  the  negroes  of  the  United  States,  and 
our  new  state  to  stay  as  they  are." 

"One  of  the  people"  decided  to  ignore  the  challenge  of  "Erin" 
because  it  was  "too  late  to  reply,  in  time  to  answer  any  of  those 
purposes  which  he  appears  to  have  had  in  view"  the  elections 
then  being  over.  To  "An  old  farmer,"  however,  he  replied  with 
vigor,  accusing  him  of  being  no  farmer  at  all  but  a  doctor  who 
had  "been  in  the  territory  about  six  or  eight  weeks."  Denying 
that  he  had  written  the  articles  signed  "A  friend  to  equal  jus- 
tice," he  accused  "An  old  farmer"  of  having  written  those  signed 
"Anticipator,"  and  of  having  "commenced  'anticipating'  a  con- 
stitution for  us"  two  weeks  after  he  came  to  Illinois.  So  much 
of  this  reply  as  was  not  devoted  to  ridicule  and  personalities,  was 
a  defense  of  the  law  and  lawyers.271  The  character  and  value  of 
the  common  law,  however,  were  much  more  ably  discussed  in  a 
communication  signed  "Common  Sense"  which  appeared  in  the 
previous  issue  of  the  paper: 

Let  us  enquire  what  this  law  is,  so  much  detested  by 
the  learned  Anticipator.  It  is  in  the  words  of  an  able 
judge  the  perfection  of  reason;  it  has  for  its  founda- 

*llntelligencer,  July  8,  1818. 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN  255 

tion  the  general  customs  of  the  kingdom,  the  law  of 
nature  and  the  law  of  God;  it  is  founded  upon  reason 
and  is  said  to  be  the  perfection  of  reason  acquired  by 
long  study,  observation,  and  experience,  and  refined  by 

learned   men    in    all   ages Its    continuance, 

therefore,  the  warmth  with  which  it  has  always  been 
supported,  and  its  general  adoption  throughout  the 
U.  States  is  the  best  evidence  of  its  utility  and  excel- 
lence; it  is  the  birthright  of  every  citizen,  the  only 
safeguard  he  hath  for  the  protection,  not  only  of  his 
property  but  his  family.272 

(All  these  various  communications,  considered  together,  would 
indicate  that  there  were  in  Illinois  in  1818,  two  sorts  of  poli- 
ticians. One  type  consisted  of  young  ambitious  lawyers,  with  a 
fair  amount  of  education,  many  of  whom  had  come  to  the  terri- 
tory only  a  few  years  before  in  the  hope  of  finding  there  a  road  to 
wealth  and  political  preferment.  The  other  class,  more  nu- 
merous, was  made  up  of  those  among  the  old  established  citi- 
zens who,  having  come  in  the  front  ranks  of  the  pioneers,  had 
acquired  a  competence  by  land  operations  or  business  enterprises 
and  had  become  the  social  and  political  leaders  of  their  fellows. 
Lacking  the  advantages  of  education  and  wide  experience,  the 
men  of  this  latter  class  were  provincial  in  their  views  and  igno- 
rant of  the  science  of  government,  but  they  were  in  no  hurry 
to  withdraw  in  favor  of  the  more  competent  newcomers. 

In  spite  of  theQmportance  of  the  issue  of  slavery  in  the  elec- 
tion of  members  of  the  convention/ it  seems  probable  that  per- 
sonal popularity  played  a  very  large  part  in  determining  the 
outcome,  just  as  had  been  the  case  with  territorial  elections. 
Relying  on  this  popularity,  some  of  the  candidates  evidently 
tritd  to  evade  the  issue.  In  the  Intelligencer  of  May  27,  a  writer 
who  signed  himself  "The  people"  declared :  "The  object  which 
most  interests  the  public  mind,  with  regard  to  the  approaching 
election,  for  members  to  the  convention,  is  to  know  whether 
they  are  in  favor  of  the  toleration  or  the  prohibition  of  slavery. 
Several  have  offered,  in  different  parts  of  the  territory,  who 
have  made  their  sentiments  known  on  that  head,  and  pledge 

^Intelligencer,  July  i,  1818. 


256  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

themselves  to  one  or  other  of  the  parties  to  support  their  favorite 
measure: — Others  again  conceal  their  real  opinions,  and  meas- 
urably give  both,  parties  hopes  of  being  successful  through  their 
means."  Still  more  objectionable  to  this  writer  were  those  who 
claimed  to  be  ready  to  obey  the  instructions  of  their  constituents 
regardless  of  their  own  views  and  thus  made  "so  light  of  their 
opinions  as  to  barter  them  for  an  office."  This  communication 
was  probably  from  an  opponent  of  the  toleration  of  slavery, 
but  a  month  later  "A  citizen,"  who  seems  to  have  been  on  the 
other  side,  called  for  the  "candid  and  impartial  sentiments"  of 
the  candidates  on  the  subject.  "On  this  important  point,"  he 
wrote,  "it  will  be  well  for  every  man  to  inquire  before  he  gives 
his  vote  and  to  enquire  of  the  candidate,  in  the  presence  of  those 
of  an  opposite  opinion  to  himself,  so  that  he  may  not  flinch,  and 
act  the  camelion,  as,  I  fear,  some  of  our  candidates  are  doing."273 
The  complicated  nature  of  the  slavery  question  doubtless  en- 
abled many  of  the  candidates  to  evade  the  vital  issues  of  existing 
slavery  and  the  indenture  system  by  merely  declaring  themselves 
opposed  to  the  admission  of  slavery.  In  Madison  county,  ac- 
cording to  a  contemporary  writer  many  years  later,  the  "candi- 
dates all  professed  to  be  opposed  to  slavery.  One  of  them  said 
he  was  opposed  to  it  because  he  believed  it  would  be  a  disadvan- 
tage to  the  State, — if  he  had  thought  it  an  advantage,  he  would 
have  been  in  favor  of  it."  One  of  the  successful  candidates  in 
this  county  was  Benjamin  Stephenson,  who  in  the  convention 
voted  for  all  the  proslavery  clauses.  Probably  he  had, declared 
himself  opposed  to  the  introduction  of  slavery  but  did  not  feel 
under  any  obligation  to  aid  in  wiping  out  existing  slavery  or  the 
indenture  system.  For  the  attitude  of  candidates  in  the  other 
counties  little  evidence  is  available  except  the  votes  in  the  con- 
vention of  those  who  were  successful.  The  representatives  of 
three  counties,  Union,  Johnson,  and  Edwards  all  voted  on  the 
antislavery  side  at  every  opportunity,  and  it  is  quite  likely  that 
the  slavery  issue  played  a  considerable  part  in  their  elections. 
Of  the  four  unsuccessful  candidates  in  Union  county,  two  held 
slaves.  In  Johnson,  the  only  known  candidate  who  was  not 

^Intelligencer,  May  27,  June  24,  1818. 


IN  A  SteH/JU:*  of  v  :I:K\VH. 


IEtJff«d    '},>  *    Jn' 
Peunteet     « 


Si.  IJOU.IK.  ]Mo. 


TITLE-PAGE  OF  WILD'S,  Fa//e>»  of  i/te  Mississippi,  WITH  PRAIRIE  SCENE 
(Original  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society) 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN  257 

elected  was  a  slaveholder  and  an  active  advocate  of  the  tolera- 
tion of  slavery  in  Illinois.  He  is  said  to  have  been  defeated  by 
only  a  few  votes.274  In  Edwards  it  is  possible  that  Birkbeck 
may  have  exerted  an  influence  against  slavery  even  as  early  as 
this  election. 

All  the  representatives  from  Gallatin,  Randolph,  and  Jack- 
son counties  voted  consistently  for  the  recognition  of  the  inden- 
ture system  and  existing  slavery.  The  importance  of  the  saline, 
the  operation  of  which  depended  upon  slave  labor,  is  sufficient 
to  explain  the  situation  in  Gallatin.  In  Randolph,  Kane  is  said 
to  have  declared  that  "if  Doctor  Fisher  should  be  elected  as  his 
colleague,  he,  Mr.  Kane,  would  consider  himself  instructed  to 
vote  for  the  introduction  of  slavery,  but  if  Mr.  McFerron  was 
elected  as  his  colleague,  then  he  would  consider  himself  in- 
structed to  vote  against  slavery."276 

From  this  it  would  seem  that  Kane  expected  to  be  elected 
himself,  regardless  of  the  issue,  because  of  his  prominence  in 
the  county.  The  situation  was  somewhat  similar  in  Jackson 
county,  where  it  was  only  a  question  of  whom  the  voters  should 
"select  as  the  other  delegate  to  accompany  Conrad  Will ;  for  the 
doctor's  ability  and  prominence  made  him  pre-eminent  in  all 
their  public  affairs.  Their  choice  fell  upon  James  Hall,  Jr.,  an 
intelligent  and  enterprising  citizen,  though  having  but  moderate 
education."  R.  E.  Heacock,  a  lawyer  who  in  1816  ran  against 
Pope  for  the  position  of  delegate,  was  the  only  one  of  the  five 
known  candidates  in  this  county  who  was  not  a  slaveholder. 
Here  again  the  salt  works  were  an  influential  factor.  The 
election  in  the  other  counties  of  men  who  opposed  each  other 
on  the  slavery  issue  indicates  that  the  question  was  not  the  de- 
termining factor  in  these  cases. 

The  methods  of  campaigning  adopted  by  the  candidates  in 
this  election  were  those  customary  on  the  frontier  at  the  time. 
The  two  newspapers  must  have  reached  only  a  small  proportion 

mHis  name  was  John  Copeland.  See  Biographical  Review  of  Johnson, 
Massac,  Pope,  and  Hardin  Counties,  354 ;  Churchill,  "Annotations,"  no.  7. 

""Ibid.;  see  also  p.  200.  For  the  situation  in  Jackson  county  see  Illinois 
State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1905,  p.  358-359;  Patterson,  "Early 
Society  in  Southern  Illinois,"  in  Fergus  Historical  Series,  no.  14:122. 


258  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

of  the  voters  but  it  is  probable  that  handbills  were  circulated  and 
these  may  have  been  more  specific  in  their  discussion  of  the 
merits  of  the  respective  candidates  than  were  the  articles  in  the 
Intelligencer.  To  a  large  extent,  however,  the  campaign  prob- 
ably took  the  form  of  a  house  to  house  canvass,  the  character 
of  which  is  admirably  delineated  in  a  poem  entitled  "Candidates" 
which  was  published  in  the  Intelligencer  of  July  I,  five  days  be- 
fore the  elections  began: 

In  dreary  woods,  remote  from  social  walks 

I  dwell.    From  year  to  year,  no  friendly  steps 

Approach  my  cot,  save  near  election  days, 

When  throngs  of  busy,  bustling  candidates 

Cheer  me  with  their  conversation  so  soft  and  sweet — 

I  list'  with  patience  to  their  charming  tales, 

Whilst  gingerbread  and  whisky  they  disperse, 

To  me,  my  wife  and  all  the  children  round. 

Some  bring  a  store  of  little  penny  books 

And  trinkets  rare  for  all  my  infants  young. — 

My  health  and  crops  appear  their  utmost  care, 

Fraternal  squeezes  from  their  hands  I  get — 

As  tho'  they  lov'd  me  from  their  very  souls : — 

Then — "Will  you  vote  for  me  my  dearest  friend? 

Your  laws  I'll  alter,  and  lop  taxes  off; — 

'Tis  for  the  public  weal  I  stand  the  test, 

And  leave  my  home,  sorely  against  my  will : 

But  knowing  that  the  people's  good  require 

An  old  substantial  hand — I  quit  my  farm 

For  patriotism's  sake,  and  public  good;" 

Then  fresh  embraces  close  the  friendly  scene, 

With  protestations  firm,  of  how  they  love. 

But  what  most  rarely  does  my  good  wife  pleate, 

Is  that  the  snot  nos'd  baby  gets  a  buss ! ! 

O  that  conventions  ev'ry  day  were  call'd, 

That  social  converse  might  forever  reign. 

It  would  seem  that  those  candidates  who  most  diligently  fol- 
lowed this  method  of  house  to  house  canvass  were  the  most 
likely  to  be  elected.  No  one  had  a  better  opportunity  for  such  a 
canvass  than  the  commissioners  who  took  the  census,  and  five 
of  them  or  one-third  of  their  number,  were  elected  to  the  con- 
vention. Among  the  other  successful  candidates  were  the 
father  of  one  and  the  brother  of  another  of  the  commissioners. 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN  259 

Doubtless  the  latter  had  availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity  to 
speak  a  good  word  for  their  relatives  while  collecting  the  census 
data. 

In  such  a  campaign  it  is  probable  that  personalities  played  a 
large  part.  One  of  the  candidates  in  Monroe  county  was  Andey 
Kinney,  an  early  settler  in  the  country.  His  opponents  first 
charged  him  with  "offering  to  purchase  votes  on  such  and  such 
terms"  and  then  dug  up  an  old  charge  that  he  had  once  rebelled 
against  his  country  "and  had  taken  a  captain's  commission  under 
a  French  officer."  They  specified,  moreover,  that  he  "had  been 
tried  by  a  court  of  justice,  fined  in  a  sum  of  forty  dollars,  and 
never  to  hold  a  commission  in  the  territory  afterwards." 

Kinney  denied  the  charge  in  the  Intelligencer  of  June  10,  and 
presented  several  certificates  to  prove  that  he  had  been  acquitted 
at  the  trial.  He  also  pointed  to  the  fact  that  he  had  "valiently 
[sic]  assisted  in  defending  my  country  .  .  .  .  in  an  engage- 
ment above  Cahokia,  under  the  Bluff  ....  where  we  killed 
seven  men,  and  wounded  some  more,  in  the  year  1794."  The  sole 
cause  of  his  "embarking  in  this  important  case  of  the  convention, 
was  for  the  express  purpose  of  being  an  advocate  for  our  inherent 
rights  which  naturally  belong  to  a  free  and  independent  peo- 
ple.— Slavery  is  an  abomination  which  we  ought  to  guard  against 
in  every  sense  of  the  word.  High  salaries  which  are  oppressive 
to  the  people,  ought  never  to  be  sanctioned.  So  I  shall  conclude, 
stating  that  i'f  I  should  be  elected,  that  according  to  the  best  of 
my  abilities,  I  will  use  every  exertion  in  my  power,  to  promote 
the  general  interest  of  the  people."  Kinney  was  not  elected. 

The  elections  took  place  on  July  6,  7,  and  8.  The  only  polls 
in  each  county  were  held  at  the  county  seat  and  the  voting  was 
viva  voce.  The  vote  of  each  elector  was  recorded  and  pro- 
claimed aloud  by  the  sheriff.  This  system,  which  was  used  in 
several  of  the  southern  states  had  been  substituted  for  election 
by  ballot  by  a  law  passed  by  the  territorial  legislature  on  Decem- 
ber 8,  1813.  The  preamble  of  this  act  declared:  "Whereas 
voters  have  hitherto  been  obliged  to  vote  by  ballot,  and  the 
ignorant  as  well  as  those  in  embarrassed  circumstances  are 
thereby  subject  to  be  imposed  upon  by  electioneering  zealots. 


260  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

"And  whereas  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  a  representa- 
tive republican  government  since  the  opening  for  bribery  and 
corruption  is  so  manifest,  which  should  ever  be  opposed  and 
suppressed  in  such  a  government,  for  remedy  whereof."  One  of 
the  communications  of  "Agis,"  published  July  I,  1818,  was  a 
protest  against  the  viva  voce  system  of  voting  and  against  the 
regulation  requiring  "all  the  electors  of  a  county  to  give  their 
votes  in  one  place."  The  writer  showed  that  voting  by  ballot, 
instead  of  giving  opportunity  for  corruption  and  undue  influence, 
was  the  best  means  of  preventing  it.  "These  hints,"  he  con- 
cluded, "are  suggested  at  this  time  in  order  that,  when  the  all- 
important  selection  of  members  of  the  convention  for  framing 
your  state  constitution,  your  choice  may  be  directed  to  such  men 
as  will  support  the  equal  rights  of  the  people."276 

No  statistics  are  available  regarding  the  number  of  ballots  cast 
in  any  of  the  counties  except  Madison.  The  census  shows  1,012 
men  of  voting  age  in  that  county,  and  there  were  517  votes  cast 
in  the  election.277  Taking  into  consideration  the  fact  that  only 
those  who  had  been  in  the  territory  since  the  first  of  the  year 
were  qualified  to  vote  and  the  long  distances  which  many  of  the 
voters  must  have  had  to  travel,  this  indicates  a  very  active  in- 
terest on  the  part  of  the  electorate. 

News  of  the  result  of  the  election  was  slow  in  coming  in.  On 
July  15,  the  Intelligencer  printed  the  names  of  the  successful 
candidates  in  Randolph  and  the  near-by  counties  of  Monroe,  St. 
Clair,  Madison,  and  Jackson.  The  next  week  the  list- was  com- 
pleted for  all  except  Bond,  Edwards,  and  Crawford  counties, 
but  the  names  of  the  representatives  from  these  counties  were 
not  printed  until  August  5,  two  days  after  the  convention  as- 
sembled. 

The  issue  of  the  Intelligencer  in  which  were  printed  the  first 
proceedings  of  the  convention,  contained  the  following  address : 

The  undersigned  happening  to  meet  at  the  St.  Clair 
Circuit  Court  have  united  in  submitting  the  fol- 
lowing address  to  the  friends  of  Freedom  in  the 
state  of  Illinois : 

""Pope's  Digest,  i:i54-i55;  Intelligencer,  July  i,  1818. 
•"Churchill,  "Annotations,"  no.  7. 


THE  CONVENTION  CAMPAIGN  261 

Feeling  it  a  duty  in  those  who  are  sincere  in  their 
opposition  to  the  toleration  of  slavery  in  this  territory, 
to  use  all  fair  and  laudable  means  to  effect  that  subject, 
we  therefore,  beg  leave  to  present  to  our  fellow-citi- 
zens at  large,  the  sentiments  which  prevail  in  this 
section  of  our  country  on  that  subject.  In  the  coun- 
ties of  Madison  and  St.  Clair,  the  most  populous 
counties  in  the  territory,  a  sentiment  approaching  that 
of  unanimity  against  it  seems  to  prevail.  In  the  coun- 
ties of  Bond,  Washington  and  Monroe,  a  similar  senti- 
ment also  prevails.  We  are  informed  that  strong  exer- 
tions will  be  made  in  the  Convention  to  give  sanction 
to  that  deplorable  evil  in  our  state;  and  least  such 
should  be  the  result  at  too  late  a  period  for  any  thing 
like  concert  to  take  place  among  the  friends  of  free- 
dom in  trying  to  defeat  it;  we  therefore,  earnestly  so- 
licit all  true  friends  to  freedom  in  every  section  of  the 
territory,  to  unite  in  opposing  it,  both  by  the  election  of 
a  Delegate  to  Congress  who  will  oppose  it,  and  by 
forming  meetings  and  preparing  remonstrances  to 
Congress  against  it.  Indeed,  so  important  is  this  ques- 
tion considered,  that  no  exertion  of  a  fair  character 
should  be  omitted  to  defeat  the  plan  of  those  who  either 
wish  a  temporary  or  unlimited  slavery.  Let  us  also  se- 
lect men  to  the  Legislature  who  will  unite  in  remon- 
strating to  the  general  government  against  ratifying 
such  a  constitution.  At  a  crisis  like  this,  thinking  will 
not  do,  acting  is  necessary.278 

In  this  address,  the  leaders  of  the  extreme  antislavery  party 
acknowledged  their  defeat. 

m  Intelligencer,  August  5,  1818.  The  address  was  signed  by  Risdon  Moore, 
Benjamin  Watts,  Jacob  Ogle,  Joshua  Oglesby,  William  Scott,  Sr,  William 
Biggs,  George  Blair,  Charles  Matheny,  James  Garretson,  and  William  Kin- 
ney  from  St.  Clair  county;  William  Whiteside  from  Madison;  James  Lemen 
from  Monroe;  and  William  Bradsby  from  Washington. 


CHAPTER  X 

FRAMING   THE    CONSTITUTION 

It  must  have  been  a 
great  event  for  the 
quaint  old  town  of  Kas- 
kaskia  when  the  con- 
stitutional   con- 


[Original  owned  by  William  Wilk-  ^^*llMlfc  VCntion 

inson,   Roodhouse]  -^p 

bled  on  the  first 

Monday  in  August,  1818.  Composed  of  thirty-three  members, 
this  body  was  almost  twice  as  large  as  the  council  and  house 
of  representatives  combined  of  the  last  territorial  legislature. 
Doubtless  many  who  were  not  members  of  the  convention 
but  were  interested  in  the  outcome  of  its  deliberations  vis- 
ited Kaskaskia  during  the  session;  Bennett's  tavern  was  filled 
to  overflowing.  Among  the  distinguished  men  known  to  have 
been  present  were  the  Reverend  John  Mason  Peck,  Baptist  mis- 
sionary, who  disclaims  any  business  with  the  convention,  and 
Edward  Coles,  afterwards  governor  and  leader  of  the  anti- 
slavery  party,  who  asserts  that  he  not  only  attended  the  conven- 
tion but  also  "made  the  acquaintance  and  learned  the  opinions, 
views  and  wishes  of  many  of  its  prominent  members.'-'  Neither 
of  these  men,  unfortunately,  left  any  detailed  account  of  his 
observations,  and  practically  the  only  available  sources,  of  in- 
formation about  the  convention  are  the  recently  discovered 
"Journal"  and  the  very  inadequate  and  colorless  reports  in  the 
Intelligencer*119 

^Babcock,  Memoir  of  Peck,  97;  Washburne,  Edward  Coles,  44;  Coles 
to  Lippincott  (n.  d.),  copied  as  a  manuscript  note  in  Lippincott's  copy  of 
his  "Conflict  of  the  Century."  The  only  copy  of  the  "Journal"  of  the  conven- 
tion known  to  be  in  existence,  was  presented  to  the  secretary  of  state  in  1005 
by  J.  W.  Kitchell,  a  nephew  of  Joseph  Kitchell,  one  of  the  members  of  the 
convention  from  Crawford  county.  A  page  for  page  reprint  of  this  copy  can 
be  found  in  the  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Journal,  6:355-424.  [The 

(262) 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  263 

All  the  representatives  elected  to  the  convention  except  the 
four  from  the  near-by  counties  of  Washington  and  Jackson 
were  present  on  August  3,  the  date  set  by  the  enabling  act  for 
assembling.  A  temporary  organization  having  been  effected, 
the  "representatives  from  the  several  counties  were  then  called" 
and  the  members  present  took  their  seats.  Permanent  organ- 
ization followed  immediately;  Jesse  B.  Thomas  was  elected 
president,  William  C.  Greenup,  secretary,  and  Ezra  Owen,  ser- 
geant at  arms.  Judge  Thomas  was  the  most  prominent  man  who 
had  been  elected  to  the  convention  so  that  his  choice  as  president 
was  a  natural  one  and  may  have  had  no  political  significance. 
Greenup  had  held  various  clerkships  in  the  territorial  legislature 
and  in  the  courts  of  Randolph  county,  and  in  spite  of  his  hos- 
tility to  the  governor  had  been  appointed  clerk  of  the  circuit 
court  and  reappointed  clerk  of  the  county  court  the  preceding 
January.  Doubtless  he  was  one  of  the  few  men  available  who 
were  qualified  for  the  position.  The  "Journal"  gives  no  in- 
formation about  the  balloting  for  officers,  except  the  names  of 
the  men  elected  but  it  is  clear  that,  if  there  was  any  contest  be- 
tween the  old  political  factions  over  the  organization  of  the  con- 
vention, the  Edwards  faction  certainly  was  not  in  control.280 
The  only  other  business  transacted  the  first  day  was  the  appoint- 
ment of  three  committees,  one  to  examine  the  credentials  of  the 
members,  one  to  frame  a  set  of  rules,  and  one  to  secure  a  min- 
ister to  open  the  next  meeting  with  prayer. 

The  first  real  work  of  the  convention  was  necessarily  to  ascer- 
tain officially  the  result  of  the  census  in  order  that  it  might  know 
whether  or  not  it  was  authorized,  under  the  enabling  act,  to 
proceed  with  the  framing  of  a  constitution.  On  the  second  day, 
August  4,  after  the  representatives  from  Jackson  and  Washing- 
ton counties  had  been  admitted,  Mr.  Kane  moved  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  committee  "to  examine  the  returns  made  to  the  secre- 
tary's office  of  this  territory  ....  and  make  report  thereon. 

following  narrative  is  based  mainly  on  this  "Jpurnal"  and  on  the  text  of  the 
constitution.  Since  both  are  comparatively  brief  documents,  it  has  not  been 
thought  necessary  to  give  detailed  citations,  except  in  a  few  cases  where  it 
seemed  advisable  to  fix  the  source  of  the  quotation. — Ed.] 

280"Journal,"  p.  3,  in  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Journal,  6 1355 ; 
James,  Territorial  Records,  55 ;  letter  of  Edwards,  January  18,  1818,  and 
one  with  no  date  in  Chicago  Historical  Society  manuscripts,  49 1235 ;  51 :484. 


264  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

And  also,  to  receive  and  report  such  other  evidence  of  the  actual 
population  of  the  territory  as  to  them  shall  seem  proper."  Kane 
himself  was  made  chairman  of  this  committee  as  he  had  been 
also  of  the  credentials  committee.  On  the  following  day  he  re- 
ported first  for  the  latter  committee,  a  simple  matter  as  there 
appear  to  have  been  no  contests  over  seats,  and  then  presented 
the  census  returns  by  counties  as  ascertained  from  the  secretary's 
office.  The  lists  totaled  40,258,  an  increase  of  5,638  over  the 
first  reports  in  Jjine.  Besides  the  1,281  for  Franklin  county 
which  had  not  been  reported  on  before,  this  increase  was  divided 
among  the  different  counties  in  numbers  varying  from  16  to 
1,847.  I*1  Bond,  Randolph,  Johnson,  and  Pope  the  increments 
were  less  than  a  hundred,  while  in  Madison,  St.  Clair,  Gallatin, 
and  Crawford  they  were  above  five  hundred.  These .  additions 
were,  in  general,  the  results  of  the  supplementary  census  which 
appears  to  have  been  taken  in  all  but  two  counties  at  least.281 
Only  four  of  these  additional  returns  are  now  available  but 
they  throw  some  light  on  the  character  of  the  census.  The  Wash- 
ington county  commissioner  evidently  went  into  outlying  dis- 
tricts where  the  people  had  not  previously  been  counted,  and  even 
visited  and  counted  those  in  the  western  part  of  Edwards  county, 
who  were  widely  separated  from  the  main  settlements  near  the 
Wabash.  In  the  returns  from  Jackson,  Gallatin,  and  Crawford, 
however,  it  is  clear  that  it  was  the  newcomers  who  were  being 
counted,  and  the  fact  that  very  few  among  the  additional  names 
are  to  be  found  in  the  lists  of  old  settlers  in  the  county  histories 
would  indicate  that  many  were  included  who  were  merely  pass- 
ing through  the  county.  Among  the  names  in  the  additional 
census  of  Gallatin  is  that  of  C.  Trimmer,  who  figures  as  the 
head  of  a  family  of  fifty.  This  entry  refers  to  a  party  of  Eng- 
lish emigrants  on  its  way  to  Birkbeck's  colony  in  Edwards 
county.  The  discrepancy  for  several  of  the  counties  between 
this  census  and  that  of  the  United  States  in  1820  is  of"  course 
increased  by  the  supplementary  figures. 

""In  1819  the  legislature  passed  "AN  ACT  for  the  relief  of  persons  taking 
additional  census,"  which  provided  extra  payment  ranging  from  five  to  thirty 
dollars  for  the  commissioners  of  all  the  counties  except  Bond,  Johncon,  and 
Edwards.  Laws  of  1819,  p.  347. 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  265 

The  convention  appears  to  have  raised  no  question  as  to  the 
adequacy  of  the  census.  At  any  rate,  the  "report  was  read,  con- 
sidered and  concurred  in."  After  postponing  the  consideration 
of  rules  until  the  following  day,  the  convention  was  ready  to 
decide  the  all  important  question  of  the  expediency  of  advancing 
to  statehood.  Mr.  Prickett  offered  a  resolution  declaring  that 
as  "there  are  upwards  of  40,000  inhabitants"  in  the  territory,  "it 
is  expedient  to  form  a  constitution  and  state  government."  A 
motion  by  Kane  to  postpone  consideration  of  the  resolution  until 
the  following  day  was  voted  down;  the  resolution  was  then 
considered  and  passed.  Judging  from  this  prompt  action  it  would 
seem  that  the  opponents  of  statehood,  if  there  were  any  in  the 
convention,  must  have  numbered  only  a  small  minority  and 
must  have  recognized  the  futility  of  any  opposition.  It  is  doubt- 
ful if  Kane's  motion  to  postpone  consideration  of  the  resolution 
for  a  day  was  due  to  any  desire  to  check  the  statehood  program. 
Had  he  entertained  any  such  designs,  he  was  too  shrewd  to  have 
missed  the  opportunity  afforded  by  the  character  of  the  census 
and  especially  by  the  inclusion  of  the  estimated  population  at 
Prairie  du  Chien.  Had  these  figures  been  omitted,  as  they 
should  have  been  under  the  provisions  of  the  enabling  act,  the 
totals  would  have  been  below  the  requisite  forty  thousand.282  As 
chairman  of  the  committee  on  the  census,  Kane  might,  had  he 
so  desired,  have  presented  a  report  which  at  least  would  have 
made  the  convention  hesitate. 

The  alternative  procedure  of  providing  for  a  second  conven- 
tion to  frame  the  constitution  does  not  appear  to  have  been  con- 
sidered at  all,  for  immediately  after  the  adoption  of  the  "ex- 
pediency" resolution,  provision  was  made  for  "a  committee  of 
fifteen,  one  from  each  county  ....  to  frame  and  report  to 
this  convention  a  constitution  for  the  people  of  the  territory  of 
Illinois."  The  chairman  of  this  committee  was  Leonard  White 
of  Gallatin  but,  according  to  all  the  evidence,  the  directing  spirit 
was  Elias  Kent  Kane.  The  report  of  the  committee,  however, 
certainly  did  not  represent  the  latter's  wishes  in  all  particulars. 
The  committee  took  a  week  in  which  to  prepare  its  draft  of  the 

282On  this  whole  discussion  of  the  census  see  above,  p.  238-241 ;  compare 
"Journal,"  p.  6,  7,  and  Flower,  English  Settlement,  96,  99. 


266  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

constitution;  the  convention  in  the  interval  considered  and 
adopted  an  elaborate  body  of  rules  of  procedure,  provided  for  the 
printing  of  the  journal  and  the  draft,  and  contracted  for  sta- 
tionary.288 On  the  sixth  Mr.  Card  offered  a  resolution  for  a  com- 
mittee "to  draft  an  ordinance  to  establish  the  bounds  of  the 
state  of  Illinois  and  for  other  purposes;"  and  Mr.  Hubbard 
offered  another  for  a  committee  "to  draft  an  ordinance  acknowl- 
edging and  ratifying  the  donations  made  by  an  act  of  congress 
passed  in  April,  1818."  On  motion  of  Mr.  Kane  consideration 
of  both  of  these  resolutions  was  postponed  until  the  following 
day  when  the  first  was  dropped  and  for  the  second  was  substi- 
tuted, again  on  motion  of  Mr.  Kane,  another  resolution  directing 
the  committee  of  fifteen  "to  consider  the  expediency  of  accept- 
ing or  rejecting  the  propositions  made  to  this  convention  by  the 
congress  of  the  United  States,  and  if  in  their  opinion  it  shall  be 
expedient  to  accept  the  same,  it  shall  be  their  further  duty  to 
draft  an  ordinance  irrevocable,  complying  with  the  conditions 
annexed  to  the  acceptance  of  such  propositions  in  the  act  for  the 
admission  of  this  territory  in  the  union,  and  report  thereon."28* 

On  the  same  day,  the  seventh,  "Mr.  Kane  presented  two  peti- 
tions signed  by  sundry  inhabitants  of  Randolph  county,  one 
praying  that  this  convention  shall  declare  in  the  constitution  to 
be  formed  that  the  moral  law  is  the  basis  of  its  structure,  and 
acknowledge  therein  an  universal  parent.  The  other  praying 
that  this  convention  may  declare  the  scriptures  to  be  the  word 
of  God,  and  that  the  constitution  is  founded  upon  the  same." 
These  petitions  emanated  from  a  sect  of  Covenanters,  who  had 
established  themselves  in  Randolph  county.  They  were  referred 
to  a  select  committee  but  no  attention  was  paid  to  them  in  the 
framing  of  the  constitution  and,  according  to  Governor  Ford, 

^Reynolds,  My  Own  Times,  211;  Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  24;  Brown, 
"Early  History  of  Illinois,"  in  Fergus  Historical  Series,  no.  14 186-87  >  John  F. 
Snyder  is  an  authority  for  the  statement  that  "Judge  Breese,  who  was  then 
a  law  student  in  Elias  K.  Kane's  office  in  Kaskaskia,  said  the  Constitution 

was  written  in  Mr.  Kane's  office  some  time  before  the  meeting  of  the 

convention."  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1905,  p.  360  note. 
Breese  did  not  arrive  in  Illinois,  however,  until  several  months  later.  Samuel 
Breese  to  Kane,  October  20,  1818,  in  Chicago  Historical  Society  manuscripts, 
52 :33 ;  Moses,  Illinois,  1 1455. 

""'Journal,"  p.  13,  hi  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Journal,  6  -.365. 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  267 

the  Covenanters  for  many  years  "refused  to  work  the  roads  un- 
der the  laws,  serve  on  juries,  hold  any  office,  or  do  any  other  act 
showing  that  they  recognize  the  government."  The  only  excep- 
tion was  in  the  convention  election  of  1824  "when  they  voted  for 
the  first  time,  and  unanimously  against  slavery."285 

On  Saturday  and  Monday,  the  eighth  and  tenth,  the  conven- 
tion marked  time.  On  the  eleventh  Mr.  Bankson  announced 
the  death  that  morning  of  his  colleague,  John  K.  Mangham  of 
Washington.  The  members  of  the  convention  agreed  to  wear 
crape  on  the  left  arm  for  thirty  days  in  testimony  of  their  respect 
for  Mr.  Mangham' s  memory,  and  a  committee  was  appointed 
to  make  arrangements  for  the  funeral.  This  took  place  late  in 
the  afternoon  "attended  by  the  members  of  the  Convention  and 
the  citizens  of  the  place  generally."  Two  days  later  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  ordering  an 
election  to  fill  the  vacancy  but  the  committee  reported  "that  an 
election  could  not  be  effected  in  time  to  answer  the  purpose  of 
giving  the  said  county  their  full  representation  in  this  conven- 
tion before  the  same  will  have  risen."  This  report  was  con- 
curred in  by  the  convention  and  no  election  was  held. 

The  draft  of  the  constitution  was  finally  reported  by  the  com- 
mittee of  fifteen  on  Wednesday  the  twelfth.  It  consisted  of  a 
preamble  and  eight  articles,  the  greater  part  of  which  had  been 
copied  from  the  constitutions  of  neighboring  states.  Periods  of 
time,  ages,  and  amounts  of  salary  were  left  blank  to  be  filled  in 
by  the  convention.  Accompanying  the  draft  was  an  ordinance 
accepting. the  federal  donations  and  agreeing  to  comply  with  the 
requisite  conditions;  this  was  adopted  by  the  convention  with- 
out change.  The  day  after  the  introduction  of  the  draft  of  the 
constitution  the  convention  took  it  up  for  consideration,  section 
by  section,  and  made  various  changes.  This  "first  reading"  took 
two  and  a  half  days  and  at  its  conclusion  a  committee  of  five 
was  appointed,  none  of  whom  had  served  on  the  committee  of 
fifteen,  to  suggest  additional  articles  or  sections  which  it  might 
consider  necessary  to  complete  the  draft  of  the  constitution.  The 

Tord,  ^History  of  Illinois,  25 ;  "Journal,"  p.  13,  in  Illinois  State  His- 
torical Society,  Journal,  6:365.  See  also  p.  66  of  the  "Journal"  on  a  similar 
petition,  presented  near  the  close  of  the  session  of  the  convention. 


268  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

work  of  this  committee  was  primarily  to  prepare  a  schedule  for 
putting  the  new  government  into  operation  and  that  same  day 
presented  its  first  report  on  the  temporary  apportionment  of 
senators  and  representatives. 

On  Monday  the  seventeenth,  the  second  reading  of  the  consti- 
tution was  begun  and  the  first  five  articles  were  considered. 
Tuesday  morning  the  apportionment  proposed  by  the  committee 
of  five  was  read  the  second  and  third  times,  amended,  and 
adopted,  after  which  the  second  reading  of  the  constitution  was 
continued  and  completed.  A  schedule  of  sixteen  sections  was 
then  reported  by  the  committee,  read  the  first  time,  and  consid- 
ered section  by  section.  The  committee  also  presented  at  this 
time  a  "separate  report  relative  to  a  permanent  seat  of  govern- 
ment." The  morning  of  the  nineteenth  was  taken  up  with  various 
reconsiderations,  and  in  the  afternoon  the  convention  began  the 
third  reading  of  the  draft  "as  amended  and  engrossed."  Some 
time  was  spent  the  next  morning  considering  resolutions  relative 
to  the  location  of  the  capital,  after  which  the  third  reading  of 
the  constitution  was  continued  and  completed.  Various  addi- 
tional sections  proposed  from  the  floor  were  then  considered. 
On  August  21  a  "committee  of  enrolments"  was  appointed,  con- 
sisting of  Kane,  Stephenson,  and  Cullom,  the  schedule  received 
its  second  and  third  readings,  and  various  resolutions  relating  to 
qualifications  for  voting  at  the  first  election  and  to  the  location 
of  the  seat  of  government  were  considered.  "A  committee  of 
revision"  consisting  of  Lemen,  Omelveny,  and  Kane  was  ap- 
pointed the  next  day,  Saturday,  the  twenty-second,  "to  examine 
the  draft  of  the  constitution  as  amended  and  passed,  and  make 
report  to  this  convention  on  next  Monday  morning."  This  com- 
mittee "corrected  sundry  inaccuracies"  and  recommended  the 
expunging  of  one  entire  section.  Its  report,  presented  by  Kane, 
was  concurred  in  by  the  convention,  but  even  after  that  several 
changes  were  made  in  different  sections  by  reconsideration.  A 
resolution  relative  to  the  seat  of  government  was  adopted  on  the 
twenty-fourth,  and  finally  on  Wednesday,  the  twenty-sixth,  the 
constitution  was  signed  and  the  convention  adjourned. 

The  preamble  of  the  draft  and  article  one,  which  deal  with  the 


ELIAS  KENT  KANE 

[From  original  owned  by  Illinois  State  Historical  Library] 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  269 

distribution  of  the  powers  of  government  into  three  departments, 
follow  in  the  main  the  wording  of  the  constitutions  of  Indiana 
and  Kentucky;  the  preamble  contains  the  statement  of  tto 
boundaries  assigned  by  congress.  These  sections  were  adopted 
by  the  convention  with  only  slight  changes. 

The  second  article,  dealing  with  the  legislative  department  fol- 
lows very  closely  the  constitution  of  Ohio.  Section  one  provides 
for  a  bicameral  legislature,  and  sections  two  to  six  inclusive  deal 
with  the  election  and  qualifications  of  members.  At  the  first 
reading  the  blanks  were  filled  in  to  make  the  elections  biennial 
on  the  first  Monday  in  August  but  this  necessitated  a  special  pro- 
vision for  the  date  of  the  first  election.  At  the  second  reading 
the  first  Thursday  of  September,  1818  was  selected,  but  some 
of  the  members  felt  that  this  was  too  early.  As  a  compromise 
the  third  Thursday  was  finally  adopted  almost  unanimously. 
Representatives  were  required  to  be  twenty-one  years  of  age, 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  residents  in  the  district  repre- 
sented for  twelve  months  preceding  the  election.  For  senators, 
the  requirements  were  the  same  except  that  the  age  limit  was 
twenty-five  and  they  were  required  to  "have  paid  a  state  or 
county  tax."  The  convention  added  the  latter  qualification  for 
representatives  also,  at  the  third  reading.  The  terms  of  senators 
were  fixed  at  four  years,  one-half  to  be  elected  biennially.  Both 
senators  and  representatives  were  to  be  apportioned  according  to 
the  number  of  white  inhabitants.  The  number  of  representatives 
was  to  be  not  less  than  twenty-seven  nor  more  than  thirty-six 
until  the  population  should  reach  a  hundred  thousand,  and  the 
number  of  senators  was  never  to  be  less  than  one-third  more  than 
one-half  the  number  of  representatives. 

The  seventh  section  of  article  two  originally  provided  that 
each  house  should  choose  a  speaker,  but  this  was  changed  on 
third  reading  to  except  the  senate,  after  sections  establishing  the 
office  of  lieutenant  governor  had  been  added  to  another  article. 
Sections  eight  to  seventeen,  inclusive,  dealing  with  procedure 
in  the  legislature  were  of  the  usual  sort  and  received  only  verbal 
changes  at  the  hands  of  the  convention.  Section  eighteen,  how- 
ever, which  dealt  with  salaries  caused  a  bitter  contest.  After  the 


270  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

blanks  had  been  filled,  at  first  reading,  the  section  prohibited  tne 
legislature  from  allowing,  before  1824,  annual  salaries  greater 
than  $1,250  for  the  governor  and  $500  for  the  secretary  of  state, 
while  the  pay  of  members  of  the  legislature  was  not  to  exceed 
two  dollars  per  day.  On  a  second  reading  the  limit  for  the  sec- 
retary of  state  was  raised  to  $600  and  that  for  the  members  of 
the  legislature  to  three  dollars  per  day,  but  at  third  reading,  on 
motion  of  Kane  and  Messinger,  all  reference  to  the  salaries  of 
members  of  the  legislature  was  dropped.  Had  it  not  been  for  a 
controversy  over  the  salaries  of  justices  of  the  supreme  court, 
provided  for  in  section  five  of  article  four,  it  is  probable  that  no 
further  changes  would  have  been  made  in  this  section.  At  sec- 
ond reading  the  salaries  of  justices  were  fixed  at  $1,250,  the 
same  amount  as  had  been  allowed  the  governor,  but  at  third 
reading  this  sum  was  reduced  to  $1,000.  The  following  day  a 
motion  for  reconsideration  of  the  section  limiting  the  governor's 
salary  was  defeated  by  a  tie  vote  but  three  days  later  it  was  car- 
ried, 16  to  14.  The  limit  was  then  reduced  from  $1,250  to 
$1,000  by  a  vote  of  17  to  14.  That  this  action  was  taken  in  re- 
taliation for  the  reduction  of  the  salaries  of  justices  is  evident 
from  the  fact  that  nine  men  who  voted  for  reduction  in  each 
case  opposed  it  in  the  other.  Enough  other  members,  however, 
were  in  favor  of  economy  to  carry  both  votes. 

Two  sections  of  article  two  of  the  draft  dealing  with  "min- 
isters of  the  gospel"  are  of  special  interest  because  of  the  exten- 
sive discussion  of  the  political  activities  of  clergymen,  in  the 
Intelligencer  during  the  later  territorial  period.  A  writer  who 
signed  himself  "A  foe  to  religious  tyranny"  had  roundly  de- 
nounced the  political  sermons  of  certain  ministers  and  their 
theory  that  only  "professors  of  religion"  should  be  elected  to  of- 
fice. In  the  first  draft  of  the  constitution,  section  twenty-six 
provided  that:  "Whereas,  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  are  by 
their  professions,  dedicated  to  God  and  the  care  of  souls,  and 
ought  not  to  be  diverted  from  the  great  duties  of  their  functions : 
Therefore,  no  minister  of  the  gospel  or  priest  of  any  denomina- 
tion whatever,  shall  be  eligible  to  a  seat  in  either  house  of  the 
legislature."  As  a  corollary  to  this  was  section  thirty-three: 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  271 

"No  minister  of  the  gospel,  or  priest  of  any  denomination  what- 
ever, shall  be  compelled  to  do  militia  duty,  work  on  roads  or  serve 
on  juries."  The  introduction  of  these  sections  called  forth  a 
communication  in  the  paper  of  August  12,  addressed  to  "The 
members  of  the  Illinois  Convention,  now  in  session."  "It  is  with 
peculiar  pleasure,"  said  the  writer,  "I  learn  that  the  committee 
appointed  to  draft  a  Constitution  have  embodied  in  it  a  pro- 
vision to  exempt  ministers  of  the  Gospel  from  the  servile  and 
arduous  drudgery  of  legislation,  and  of  electioneering  to  procure 
themselves  seats  in  the  legislature.  This  provision  is  extremely 
humane  and  is  not  without  precedent  in  other  constitutions.288 
The  flesh  of  many  of  these  preachers  is  very  willing  but  their 
spirit  is  truly  weak  There  did  appear  amongst  them  a  spirit 
that  would  have  enabled  the  people  to  have  filled  the  Convention 
with  ministers,  MINISTERS  of  the  GOSPEL!!  ....  But  I 
would  humbly  suggest  that  said  provision  is  not  sufficiently  ex- 
tensive to  administer  complete  relief Why  not  dis- 
qualify preachers  of  the  gospel  from  holding  any  civil  office?" 
A  motion  to  strike  out  section  twenty-six  which  was  made  dur- 
ing the  first  reading  was  voted  down,  but  later  on  reconsideration 
both  sections  were  dropped  from  the  constitution. 

Another  section  of  the  second  article  of  the  draft  which  failed 
to  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  convention  was  number  thirty- 
five.  This  prohibited  the  removal  of  county  seats  without  "full 
compensation  ....  to  the  persons  injuried  [sic]  by  such  re- 
moval" and  also  prohibited  the  organization  of  new  counties  "un- 
less a  petition  shall  be  presented  to  the  legislature,  signed  by  at 
least  two  hundred  qualified  voters,  residing  in  the  bounds  of  the 
district  applying  to  be  laid  off."  At  the  first  reading  this  whole 
section  was  stricken  out,  and  an  attempt  later  to  introduce  into 
the  schedule  a  section  dealing  with  the  organization  of  counties 
was  also  a  failure. 

Section  twenty-four  of  article  two  as  originally  drawn  pro- 
vided for  annual  sessions  of  the  legislature  but  at  second  reading 
these  were  changed  to  biennial.  The  first  session  was  to  begin 

288Similar  sections  are  to  be  found  in  the  New  York  constitution  of  1777, 
section  thirty-nine,  and  the  Kentucky  constitution  of  1799,  article  eight,  sec- 
tion one.  Thorpe,  Constitutions,  5:2637;  3:1280. 


272  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

"on  the  first  Monday  of  October  next"  and  others  "on  the  first 
Monday  of  December  next  ensuing  the  election."  Reasons 
which  may  have  influenced  the  convention  to  decide  on  biennial 
instead  of  annual  sessions  are  indicated  in  a  "letter  from  an  in- 
habitant of  St.  Clair  county,  to  a  Member  of  the  Convention," 
an  extract  from  which  was  published  in  the  Intelligencer  of 
August  19.  After  declaring  "that  the  lapse  of  a  few  months 
will  not  furnish  a  sufficient  test  of  the  qualities  of  the  theory  or 
practicable  operation  of  the  laws  passed  at  any  one  session,"  the 
writer  illustrated  his  point  by  calling  attention  to  the  activity  of 
the  territorial  legislature  "enacting  at  one  session  and  repealing 
at  the  next,  until  our  laws  on  some  subjects  have  become  so 
confused,  that  to  use  a  common  adage,  'a  Philadelphia  lawyer' 
could  not  tell  what  these  acts  mean,  nor  even  how  much  of  them 
is  in  force."  Another  advantage  pointed  out  was  the  saving  of 
expense  and  this  was  probably  the  one  which  appealed  most 
strongly  to  the  members  of  the  convention. 

A  census  of  all  "white  male  inhabitants  above  the  age  of 
twenty-one  years"  to  be  taken  periodically,  was  ordered  by  sec- 
tion thirty-two  of  article  two  of  the  draft.  At  first  reading  this 
provision  was  amended  so  as  to  require  an  enumeration  in  1825 
"and  every  fifth  year  thereafter  .  .  .  .  of  all  the  free  white 
inhabitants."  At  second  reading,  1820  was  substituted  for  1825 
as  the  date  of  the  first  census,  and  the  superfluous  word  "free" 
before  "white"  was  stricken  out.  In  this  form  the  section  be- 
came number  thirty-one  of  the  final  constitution.  Just  why  the 
convention  chose  to  order  a  duplication  of  the  decennial  census 
of  the  United  States  it  is  difficult  to  understand. 

Two  other  sections  of  article  two  dealing  with  elections  are  of 
special  interest.  Section  twenty-eight  gave  the  suffrage  to  "all 
white  male  inhabitants,  above  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  hav- 
ing resided  in  the  state  six  months  next  preceding  the  election ;" 
the  second  provided  that  "all  votes  shall  be  given  vive  voce  until 
altered  by  the  legislature."  Opposition  to  viva  voce  voting  on 
the  part  of  "Agis"  has  already  been  noted  and  the  adoption  of 
this  section  was  followed  by  appeals  to  the  legislature  to  change 
the  system  to  voting  by  ballot — appeals  which  were  heeded  at 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  273 

the  second  session  of  the  first  general  assembly  in  1819.  The 
provision  allowing  "inhabitants"  to  vote  regardless  of  whether 
or  not  they  were  citizens  may  have  been  a  result  of  thoughtless 
copying  of  the  Ohio  constitution.  Indiana  two  years  before  had 
limited  the  franchise  to  citizens,  probably  as  a  result  of  the  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  foreign-born  inhabitants  in  the  fourteen 
years  which  had  passed  since  the  Ohio  constitution  was  drawn 
up.  Aliens  had  been  allowed  to  vote  and  even  to  hold  office  in 
Illinois  during  the  territorial  period  and  it  is  possible  that  the 
convention  deliberately  decided  to  continue  the  practice.  The 
adoption  of  this  section  stored  up  trouble  for  the  future,  and 
called  forth  the  following  request  from  a  critic  of  the  conven- 
tion: "We  would  wish  every  member  of  the  late  convention  of 
Illinois  to  declare  publicly  in  some  newspaper  printed  in  the 
state  whether  it  was  his  intention  to  extend  the  elective  franchise 
in  this  state  to  the  subjects  of  foreign  powers  who  had  never 
complied  with  the  naturalization  laws  of  the  U.  S."287 

Article  three  of  the  constitution,  dealing  with  the  executive, 
was  also  copied  largely  from  the  constitution  of  Ohio.  Sections 
two  and  three  as  finally  adopted  provided  that  the  governor 
should  "be  chosen  by  the  electors  of  the  members  of  the  general 
assembly,"  and  should  hold  office  four  years  but  be  ineligible  for 
"more  than  four  years  in  any  term  of  eight  years."  He  was  re- 
quired to  be  thirty  years  of  age,  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  for 
thirty  years,  and  a  resident  of  the  state  for  two  years  preceding 
the  elections.  When  the  blanks  were  filled  in  at  the  first  reading 
the  period  during  which  the  governor  must  have  been  a  citizen 
was  fixed  at  ten  years  but  at  second  reading  this  was  lengthened 
to  thirty  years.  Sections  four  to  ten  inclusive,  giving  to  the  gov- 
ernor the  usual  powers  and  duties,  remained  essentially  as  they 
were  in  the  draft. 

Section  eleven  of  article  three  provided  for  a  sheriff  and  a 
coroner  in  each  county  to  be  elected  biennially  by  those  "quali- 
fied to  vote  for  members  of  the  general  assembly."  The  draft 
provided  that  no  sheriff  should  be  eligible  for  more  than  "four 

'""Journal,"  p.  21,  in  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Journal,  6:373; 
Intelligencer,  October  14,  November  u,  1818. 


274  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

years  in  any  term  of  six  years,"  but  this  feature  was  stricken 
out  at  third  reading. 

The  "speaker  of  the  senate"  was  empowered  by  section  thir- 
teen of  article  three  of  the  draft  to  exercise  the  powers  of  gov- 
ernor in  case  of  a  vacancy  in  that  office,  "unless  the  general  as- 
sembly shall  provide  by  law  for  the  election  of  a  governor  to 
fill  the  vacancy."  When  the  committee  of  five  drew  up  its  sched- 
ule, however,  it  embodied  therein  five  sections  copied  from  the 
Indiana  constitution  providing  for  a  lieutenant  governor  who 
should  be  elected  in  the  same  manner  and  have  the  same  qualifi- 
cations as  the  governor,  and  who  should  be  speaker  of  the  senate. 
An  unusual  provision  allowed  him  to  debate  and  vote  in  com- 
mittee of  the  whole,  "and  whenever  the  senate  are  equally  di- 
vided, to  give  the  casting  vote."  On  motion  of  Mr.  Kane,  these 
sections  were  taken  from  the  schedule  and  inserted  in  article 
three  just  before  section  thirteen.  That  section  was  then  renum- 
bered eighteen  and  the  words  "lieutenant-governor"  substituted 
for  "speaker  of  the  senate." 

Instead  of  giving  a  veto  power  to  the  governor  as  had  been 
done  in  most  other  state  constitutions,  the  draft  provided  in  sec- 
tion fifteen  of  article  three  for  a  council  made  up  of  "the  judges 
of  the  supreme  court  or  a  major  part  of  them  together  with  the 
governor,"  which  should  "revise  all  bills  about  to  be  passed  into 
laws"  and  return  those  of  which  it  disapproved,  together  with 
its  objections,  to  the  house  in  which  they  had  originated.  This 
section  was  copied  almost  verbatim  from  section  three  of  the 
New  York  constitution  of  1777.  At  first  reading  a  substitute 
was  adopted  by  which  the  veto  power  was  given  to  the  governor 
with  the  provision  that  bills  might  be  passed  by  a  two-thirds 
vote  in  spite  of  his  objections.  Between  the  first  and  second 
readings,  however,  the  convention  was  won  over  to  the  New 
York  system  and  at  second  reading  the  original  section  was 
restored  with  a  provision  allowing  bills  to  be  passed  over  the 
objections  of  the  council  of  revision  "by  a  majority  of  all  the 
members  elected."  This  was  an  important  departure  from  the 
New  York  arrangement,  which  required  a  two-thirds  vote  and 
thus  allowed  the  judges  to  interfere  seriously  with  legislation. 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  275 

The  incorporation  of  this  system  in  the  Illinois  constitution  prob- 
ably reflects  the  feeling  against  the  absolute  veto  power  of  the 
territorial  governors.  The  suggestion  doubtless  came  from 
Kane,  who  was  a  native  of  New  York  and  must  have  been 
familiar  with  its  constitution. 

The  last  section  of  article  three  of  the  draft  directed  the 
governor  to  "nominate  and  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent 
of  the  senate  appoint  a  secretary  of  state."  It  was  accepted 
without  a  change  by  the  convention,  and  at  the  close  of  the  third 
reading,  two  other  sections,  twenty-one  and  twenty-two  were 
added  providing  for  additional  officers.  The  state  treasurer  and 
public  printer  were  to  be  elected  biennially  by  joint  vote  of  both 
houses  of  the  legislature.  All  other  officers  whose  appointments 
were  not  otherwise  provided  for,  were  to  be  appointed  by  the 
governor,  except  that  "inferior  officers  whose  jurisdiction  may 
be  confined  within  the  limits  of  the  county,  shall  be  appointed 
in  such  manner  as  the  general  assembly  shall  prescribe."  With 
the  exception  of  the  provision  for  a  public  printer,  all  these  sec- 
tions were  copied  from  the  Kentucky  constitution.  The  general 
appointive  power  granted  to  the  governor  by  section  twenty- 
two  was  largely  nullified  by  section  ten  of  the  schedule,  which 
as  amended  and  adopted  the  following  day,  provided  that :  "An 
auditor  of  public  accounts,  and  an  attorney  general  and  such 
other  officers  as  may  be  necessary  may  be  appointed  by  the 
general  assembly,  whose  duties  may  be  regulated  by  law."  The 
effect  of  this  provision  was  to  allow  the  legislature  to  play 
fast  and  loose  with  the  appointive  power  of  the  governor.  The 
explanation,  according  to  Governor  Ford,  is  that  "the  Conven- 
tion wished  to  have  Elijah  C.  Berry  for  the  first  auditor  of 
public  accounts,  but  it  was  believed  that  Governor  Bond  [whose 
election  was  assured]  would  not  appoint  him  to  office."288 

The  subject  of  the  judiciary  had  been  so  extensively  discussed 
during  the  territorial  period,  that  the  committee  of  fifteen  appar- 
ently felt  competent  to  draft  article  four  dealing  with  it  without 
reference  to  other  state  constitutions.  The  judicial  power  was 

^"Journal,"  p.  63,  in  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Journal,  6:415; 
Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  26. 


276  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

vested  in  a  supreme  court  and  such  inferior  courts  as  the  legis- 
lature might  establish.  The  supreme  court,  consisting  of  a  chief 
justice  and  three  associate  justices,289  was  to  have  appellate  juris- 
diction only,  except  in  certain  special  cases.  All  justices  and 
judges  were  to  be  appointed  by  joint  ballot  of  the  two  houses 
of  the  legislature.  The  first  appointees  were  to  hold  office  dur- 
ing good  behavior  until  the  end  of  the  first  legislative  session 
begun  in  1824,  and  until  that  time  the  supreme  court  judges 
were  to  "hold  circuit  courts  in  the  several  counties."  After  that 
period  the  justices  were  to  "be  commissioned  during  good  be- 
havior" and  were  not  to  "hold  circuit  courts  unless  required 
by  law."  The  provision  for  new  elections  by  the  legislature  of 
1824  was  doubtless  inserted  in  order  that  advantage  might  be 
taken  of  "any  accession  of  talent"  during  the  interval.290  The 
salaries  of  justices  during  the  temporary  appointment  were 
first  fixed  at  $1,250  and  then  reduced  to  $1,000.  For  the  later 
permanent  appointments,  all  the  judges  were  to  "have  adequate 
and  competent  salaries."  Apart  from  the  question  of  salaries 
the  only  change  made  by  the  convention  in  the  article  on  the 
judiciary  was  in  the  last  section.  This  provided  in  the  draft, 
that  the  governor  should  "nominate,  and  by  and  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  senate,  appoint  a  competent  number  of  jus- 
tices of  the  peace  in  each  county."  At  the  third  reading,  how- 
ever, the  section  was  stricken  out  and  a  substitute  was  finally 
adopted  providing  for  the  election  of  justices  of  the  peace  in 
each  county.  Four  days  later,  August  24,  this  action  was  recon- 
sidered, "on  the  motion  of  mr.  Kane"  and  another  substitute 
adopted  arranging  for  the  justices  to  "be  appointed  in  each 
county  in  such  manner  ....  as  the  general  assembly  may 
direct." 

Article  five  dealing  with  the  militia  directed  that  it  should 
consist  of  "all  free  male  able  bodied  persons,  negroes,  mulattoes 
and  Indians  excepted,  resident  in  the  state,  between  the  ages 
of  1 8  and  45  years,  except  such  persons  as  now  are  or  hereafter 
may  be  exempted  by  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  or  of  this 

""The  number  of  associate  judges  might  be  increased  after  1824. 
^Intelligencer,  August  26,  1818. 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  277 

state."  Persons  "conscientiously  scrupulous  of  bearing  arms" 
were  not  to  "be  compelled  to  do  militia  duty  in  time  of  peace, 
provided  such  person  or  persons  shall  pay  an  equivalent  for  such 
exemption."  Regimental  officers  and  all  officers  below  them, 
staff  officers  excepted,  were  to  be  elected  by  the  men  of  their 
several  organizations,  and  brigadier  and  major  generals  "by  the 
officers  of  their  brigades  and  divisions  respectively."  This  ar- 
ticle, which  was  abridged  from  the  militia  article  of  the  Indiana 
constitution,  received  only  verbal  changes  at  the  hands  of  the 
convention,  with  the  exception  of  the  addition  at  the  third  reading 
of  a  section  declaring  the  militia  except  in  certain  cases  exempt 
"from  arrest  during  their  attendance  at  musters  and  elections 
of  officers,  and  in  going  to  and  returning  from  the  same." 

The  article  of  the  draft  which  suffered  the  most  radical 
changes  at  the  hands  of  the  convention  wras  the  sixth,  dealing 
with  slavery,  and  in  view  of  the  character  of  the  campaign 
for  members  of  the  convention  and  the  great  importance  of  the 
issue,  the  consideration  of  this  article  is  of  special  interest.  The 
discussions  of  slavery  in  the  Intelligencer  had  not  ceased  with 
the  elections,  nor  even  with  the  assembling  of  the  convention. 
The  issue  of  August  12,  the  day  on  which  the  draft  was  reported, 
contained  a  long  communication  from  "Pacificus"  addressed  "To 
the  honorable  members  of  the  convention  of  the  Illinois  Terri- 
tory." This  writer  professed  to  be  opposed  to  absolute  slavery 
but  was  very  solicitous  about  the  welfare  of  "a  large  and  respect- 
able portion  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  territory  who  are  anxious 
to  be  permitted  to  live  as  they  have  hitherto  done — to  retain 
in  their  families  those  whom  they  have  brought  with  them  into 
the  country,  perhaps  raised  among  their  children,  or  purchased 
with  their  money  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  the  toils  and  bur- 
dens of  domestic  life."  After  dwelling  upon  "the  blessing  of 
being  surrounded  by  good  and  faithful  servants,"  he  proceeded 
to  suggest  "the  outlines  of  a  plan  which  might  gratify  the  wishes 
of  those  who  are  in  favor  of  slavery,  and  not  materially,  if  at 
all,  affect  the  future  prosperity  of  our  infant  state."  This  plan 
contemplated  the  toleration  of  a  modified  form  of  slavery.  All 
slaves  introduced  were  to  be  registered  by  their  owners,  taught 


278  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

to  read,  and  given  "correct  ideas  of  the  general  principles  of  the 
Christian  religion."  Then  they  were  to  become  free,  males  at 
the  age  of  forty  and  females  at  thirty-five.  Children  of  slaves 
and  indentured  servants  were  also  to  be  registered  and  should 
be  freed,  males  at  thirty-two  and  females  at  twenty-eight.  "The 
constitution  also  to  declare,  that  from  and  after  the  first  day 
of  January,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty,  slavery  of 
every  kind  or  character  should  then  and  from  thenceforth  cease : 
— the  proprietors  being  liable  upon  their  bonds,  that  no  slave  at 
that  time,  infirm  or  over  fifty  years  of  age,  should  become  in 
any  manner  chargeable  to  the  public." 

The  members  of  the  Illinois  convention  had  before  them  the 
slavery  provisions  of  two  constitutions  framed  for  states  which, 
like  Illinois  had  been  under  the  obligation  of  making  their  con- 
stitutions harmonize  with  the  Ordinance  of  1787.  Section  two 
of  article  eight — the  bill  of  rights — of  the  Ohio  constitution  of 
1802  reads :  "There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  ser- 
vitude in  this  State,  otherwise  than  for  the  punishment  of  crimes, 
whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted;  nor  shall  any 
male  person,  arrived  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  nor  female 
person,  arrived  at  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  be  held  to  serve 
any  person  as  a  servant,  under  the  pretense  of  indenture  or  other- 
wise unless  such  person  shall  enter  into  such  indenture  while  in 
a  state  of  perfect  freedom  and  on  condition  of  a  bona-fide  con- 
sideration, received,  or  to  be  received,  for  their  service,  except 
as  before  excepted.  Nor  shall  any  indenture  of  any  negro  or  mu- 
latto, hereafter  made  and  executed  out  of  the  State,  or,  if  made 
in  the  State,  where  the  term  of  service  exceeds  one  year,  be  of 
the  least  validity,  except  those  given  in  the  case  of  apprentice- 
ships." The  Indiana  constitution  of  1816  ignored  the  question 
of  existing  indentures  and  merely  declared:  "There  shall  be 
neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  this  State,  otherwise 
than  for  the  punishment  of  crimes,  whereof  the  party  shall  have 
been  duly  convicted,  nor  shall  any  indenture  of  any  negro  or 
mulatto,  hereafter  made  and  executed  out  of  the  bounds  of  this 
State  be  of  any  validity  within  the  State."  Both  constitutions, 
moreover,  declared  that  no  alteration  should  ever  be  made  so  as 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  279 

to  introduce  slavery  or  involuntary  servitude,  the  Indiana  consti- 
tution stating  as  reason  therefore  that  "the  holding  any  part  of 
the  human  creation  in  slavery  or  involuntary  servitude  can  only 
originate  in  usurpation  and  tyranny."291 

The  members  of  the  committee  of  fifteen  which  framed  the 
draft  of  the  Illinois  constitution  appear  to  have  been  unwilling 
to  leave  the  question  of  existing  indentures  to  the  courts  and 
so  they  selected  the  provision  from  the  Ohio  constitution,  leaving 
blanks  to  be  filled  in  for  the  age  limits.  Instead  of  inserting 
the  section  in  the  bill  of  rights,  however,  it  was  presented  as  the 
single  section  of  a  separate  article  numbered  six.  This  might 
be  taken  to  indicate  that  the  committee  expected  additional  sec- 
tions to  be  added  by  the  convention.  At  the  first  reading  of  this 
article  the  blanks  were  filled  as  they  had  been  in  the  Ohio  section 
and  "further  consideration  was  postponed  until  the  second  read- 
ing." The  first  real  consideration  of  the  question  took  place 
on  August  1 8.  The  issue  of  the  Intelligencer  for  the  nineteenth, 
which  doubtless  went  to  press  before  any  action  had  been  taken, 
stated  that  "the  question  of  slavery  is  not  yet  decided;  a  majority 
however,  are  said  to  be  opposed  to  it."  The  same  issue  contains 
also  a  communication  which  indicates  the  kind  of  argument  which 
was  being  brought  to  bear  upon  the  members  of  the  convention. 
After  lamenting  the  burden  of  taxation  which  would  be  neces- 
sary in  order  to  carry  on  the  state  government  "even  upon  as 
economical  a  scale  as  can  safely  be  established,"  the  writer 
declared :  "It  is  thought  the  exclusion  of  slavery  will  annihilate 
a  lucrative  source  of  public  revenue.  I  mean  the  United  States' 
salines,  as  white  men  cannot  be  procured  in  sufficient  numbers 
to  convert  these  salines  to  any  extensively  valuable  purposes." 
Undoubtedly  the  problem  of  the  salines  was  a  considerable  factor 
in  determining  the  convention's  attitude  on  the  slavery  question. 

When  article  six  came  up  for  second  reading,  on  August  18, 
the  first  clause  was  changed  to  read :  "Neither  slavery  nor  invol- 
untary servitude  shall  hereafter  be  introduced  into  this  state;" 
for  the  words  "under  pretence  of  indenture  or  otherwise"  were 
substituted  "under  any  indenture  hereafter  made ;"  and  a  second 

""Thorpe,  Constitutions,  5:2909;  2:1070,  1068. 


280  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

section  was  added  as  follows:  "Nor  shall  any  person  bound 
to  labor  in  any  other  state,  be  hired  to  labor  in  this  state,  except 
within  the  tract  reserved  for  the  salt  works  near  Shawneetown, 
nor  even  at  that  place  for  a  longer  period  than  one  year  at  one 
time ;  nor  shall  it  be  allowed  there,  after  the  year — any  violation 
of  this  article,  shall  effect  the  emancipation  of  such  person  from 
his  obligation  to  service."292  The  changes  in  the  first  section  and 
the  additional  section  appear  to  have  been  proposed  together  but 
they  were  voted  on  separately.  The  vote  on  the  amendments  to 
the  first  section  would  appear  to  be  the  most  significant  of  any 
of  the  votes  on  the  slavery  question  in  the  convention.  Those 
in  favor  of  the  changes  were  Morse  of  Bond;  Borough, 
Prickett,  and  Stephenson  of  Madison;  Messinger  of  St. 
Clair;  Cairns  of  Monroe;  Fisher  and  Kane  of  Randolph, 
Hall  and  Will  of  Jackson;  Omelveny  of  Pope;  Harrison  of 
Franklin;  Jones,  White,  and  Hubbard  of  Gallatin;  and  Cullom 
and  Kitchell  of  Crawford — seventeen.  Opposed  to  them  were 
Kirkpatrick  of  Bond;  Lemen  of  St.  Clair;  Bankson,  the  sole 
representative  from  Washington ;  Moore  of  Monroe ;  M'Fatridge 
and  West  of  Johnson ;  Ferguson  of  Pope ;  Echols  and  Whiteaker 
of  Union;  Roberts  of  Franklin;  Hargrave  and  McHenry  of 
White;  and  Card  and  Compton  of  Edwards — fourteen.  This 
vote  would  indicate  that  the  issue  was  by  no  means  a  sectional 
one  between  the  northern  and  southern  parts  of  the  settled  area. 
The  object  of  the  changes  in  section  one  of  the  slavery  article 
was  undoubtedly  to  prevent  the  section  from  being  interpreted  in 
such  a  way  as  to  interfere  either  with  the  so-called  "French 
slaves"  or  with  the  indentured  servants  who  had  been  introduced 
during  the  territorial  period.  After  the  adoption  of  these 
changes,  the  proposed  second  section  was  accepted  without  a 
division.  There  were  some  members  of  the  convention,  how- 
ever, who  were  not  satisfied  with  a  merely  negative  position  on 
the  existing  indentures,  and  on  the  following  day,  without  wait- 
ing for  the  third  reading  of  the  article,  Leonard  White  of  Galla- 
tin offered  an  additional  section  declaring  that  "each  and  every 

**An  act  passed  by  the  territorial  legislature,  December  22,  1814  had  per- 
mitted the  hiring  of  slaves  anywhere  in  the  territory  for  periods  not  to 
exceed  one  year.  Pope's  Digest,  2:472. 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  281 

person  who  has  been  bound  to  service  by  contract  or  indenture, 
in  virtue  of  the  laws  of  the  Illinois  territory,  heretofore  existing, 
and  in  conformity  with  the  provisions  of  the  same,  without  fraud 
or  collusion,  shall  be  held  to  a  specific  performance  of  their  con- 
tracts or  indentures;  and  such  negroes  and  mulattoes  as  have 
been  registered  in  conformity  with  the  aforesaid  laws,  shall  serve 
out  the  time  appointed  by  said  laws: — Provided  however,  that 
the  descendants  of  such  persons,  negroes  and  mulattoes,  shall 
become  free  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  years."  This  section 
was  adopted  by  the  same  vote  as  that  on  the  amendments  to  sec- 
tion one,  17  to  14,  but  the  alignment  was  not  the  same.  Four 
men,  Ferguson  of  Pope,  Hargrave  and  McHenry  of  White,  and 
Roberts  of  Franklin,  who  had  opposed  the  changes  in  section  one 
voted  for  this  additional  section;  and  four  others,  Borough  and 
Prickett  of  Madison,  Cairns  of  Monroe,  and  Cullom  of  Craw- 
ford, who  had  supported  the  changes  opposed  this  section. 
What  the  motives  of  these  men  were  can  only  be  conjectured,  but 
one  of  them,  Prickett,  had  apparently  experienced  a  change  of 
heart  for  he  at  once  moved  a  reconsideration  of  the  whole  article. 
The  motion  was  defeated,  however,  without  a  division. 

When  article  six  came  up  for  third  reading,  the  first  section 
was  adopted,  apparently  without  protest.  An  attempt  was  made, 
however,  to  strike  out  the  second  section,  permitting  the  hiring 
of  slaves  in  the  salines,  but  this  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  10 
to  21.  Among  the  ten  were  three  of  the  men  who  had  voted 
for  the  changes  in  section  one  and  against  section  three — 
Borough,  Cairns,  and  Prickett.  All  four  of  the  men  who  had 
voted  against  the  changes  in  section  one  and  for  section  three 
opposed  striking  out  section  two  as  did  also  three  who  had  voted 
on  the  antislavery  side  on  each  of  the  other  propositions — 
Bankson  of  Washington,  Kirkpatrick  of  Bond,  and  Moore  of 
Monroe.  The  conclusion  of  section  three  was  amended  to  read : 
"Provided,  however,  that  the  children  thereafter  born  of  such 
persons,  negroes  and  mulattoes,  shall  become  free;  the  males  at 
the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  the  females  at  the  age  of  eighteen 
years.  Each  and  every  child  born  of  indentured  parents  shall 
be  entered  with  the  clerk  of  the  county  in  which  they  reside,  by 


282  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

their  owners  within  six  months  after  the  birth  of  said  child." 
The  section  was  then  adopted  without  a  division. 

The  article  on  slavery  as  a  whole  is  not  easy  to  interpret.  It 
would  seem  to  have  been  the  purpose  of  the  convention  to  make 
Illinois  ultimately  a  free  state  and  to  wipe  out  the  territorial 
indenture  system  for  the  future,  but  to  interfere  in  no  way  with 
existing  property  rights  in  slaves  or  indentured  servants.293  The 
only  vestige  of  the  indenture  system  left  was  the  right  to  bind 
negroes  "while  in  a  state  of  perfect  freedom,  and  on  condition  of 
a  bona  fide  consideration"  to  serve  for  not  to  exceed  one  year, 
and  such  indentures  were  to  be  valid  only  if  made  within  the  state. 
The  action  of  the  convention  has  usually  been  represented  as  an 
antislavery  victory  but  the  members  who  are  known  to  have 
favored  slavery  were  on  the  winning  side  in  all  three  of  the  record 
votes.  It  has  also  been  called  a  compromise  between  the  oppo- 
nents and  the  advocates  of  slavery  but  it  would  probably  be  more 
accurate  to  consider  it  a  victory  for  those  who  occupied  middle 
ground  on  the  subject.  The  solution  may  well  have  embodied 
the  views  of  a  majority  of  the  convention  and  also  of  a  majority 
of  the  people  of  the  state  as  well.  On  the  other  hand  the  possibil- 
ity of  the  refusal  of  congress  to  admit  the  state  if  the  constitu- 
tion should  lean  too  strongly  toward  the  proslavery  side  was 
doubtless  kept  in  mind.  In  this  connection  it  should  be  noted 
that  the  section  on  amendment  contained  no  prohibition  of  a 
change  in  the  constitution  to  allow  the  introduction  of  slavery, 
as  had  been  the  case  in  the  constitutions  of  Ohio  and  Indiana. 
This  may  be  significant  of  the  hopes  and  expectations  of  some  of 
the  members  of  the  convention. 

The  method  of  amending  the  constitution  was  set  forth  in 
article  seven  and  was  copied  from  the  Ohio  constitution.  It 
provided,  in  the  draft,  that  two-thirds  of  the  general  assembly 
might  recommend  to  the  electors  "to  vote  for  or  against  a  con- 
vention." If  "a  majority  of  all  the  citizens  of  the  state  voting 
for  representatives"  voted  in  the  affirmative  the  next  legislature 
was  to  call  such  a  convention  consisting  of  the  same  number  of 

"*The  constitution  did  reduce  the  age  to  which  children  of  indentured 
servants  could  be  held,  from  30  and  28  to  21  and  18  for  males  and  females 
respectively.  See  Pope's  Digest,  2:472. 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  283 

members  as  there  were  in  the  general  assembly,  which  should 
meet  within  three  months  after  the  election,  "for  the  purpose  of 
revising,  amending  or  changing  the  constitution."  At  first  read- 
ing, a  provision  was  inserted  requiring  two-thirds  of  all  the  mem- 
bers elected  to  the  general  assembly  to  join  in  ordering 
the  election.  The  last  article  of  the  constitution,  number  eight, 
was  the  usual  bill  of  rights.  Here  again  the  Ohio  consti- 
tution was  followed  in  the  main,  with  occasional  preferences 
shown  for  sections  in  the  constitutions  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
or  Indiana.  A  section  which  appears  to  have  been  original  is 
number  twenty;  it  provided  "that  the  mode  of  levying  a  tax 
shall  be  by  valuation,  so  that  every  person  shall  pay  a  tax  in 
proportion  to  the  value  of  the  property,  he  or  she  has  in  his  or 
her  possession."  Possibly  this  section  was  inserted  in  response 
to  the  complaints  of  "A  friend  to  equal  justice"  about  the 
"oppressive  system  of  taxation"  in  existence  in  the  territory. 
Section  twenty-one  also  dealt  with  a  matter  of  vital  interest  a* 
the  time  not  only  in  Illinois  but  throughout  the  country  and  espe- 
cially in  the  west — the  subject  of  banking.  There  had  been 
much  discussion  of  this  subject  in  the  paper  during  the  latter 
years  of  the  territorial  period,  a  number  of  banks  had  been  char- 
tered by  the  legislature,  and  one  had  actually  been  established.294 
The  section  in  the  draft,  provided  "that  there  shall  be  no  other 
banks  nor  monied  institutions  in  this  state,  but  those  already  pro- 
vided for  by  law,  except  a  state  bank  and  its  branches,  which 
shall  be  established  and  regulated  by  the  legislature  of  said  state, 
as  they  may  think  best."  The  convention  at  first  reading 
changed  the  second  "shall"  to  "may."  It  is  possible  that  one  ob- 
ject of  this  section  was  to  prevent  the  establishment  in  Illinois  of  a 
branch  of  the  United  States  bank.  Section  twenty-two  of  the 
draft  of  the  bill  of  rights  declared  that  "to  guard  against  the 
transgressions  of  the  high  powers  which  we  have  delegated,  we 

^"Journal,"  p.  28,  40,  49,  60.  The  words  added  to  the  article  on  amend- 
ments do  not  appear  in  the  enrolled  copy  of  the  constitution  in  the  office  of 
the  secretary  of  state.  They  must  have  been  stricken  out  shortly  before  the 
convention  adjourned,  and  the  action  upon  it  was  doubtless  recorded  on  one 
of  the  last  pages  of  the  "Journal,"  which  unfortunately  are  lacking  in  the 
only  available  copy.  See  also  Dowrie,  Development  of  Banking  in  Illinois, 
1817-1863,  ch.  2;  "Journal,"  p.  31,  40;  Intelligencer,  October  28,  1818. 


284  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

declare  that  all  powers  not  hereby  delegated,  or  well  understood, 
remain  with  the  people."  After  having  run  the  gauntlet  of 
three  readings,  this  section,  for  some  unknown  reason,  was 
stricken  out  on  the  recommendation  of  Kane's  committee  on 
revision.  At  the  close  of  third  reading,  two  sections,  number 
twenty-two  and  twenty-three  of  the  final  constitution,  were  added 
to  article  eight.  These  were  taken  from  the  Indiana  constitu- 
tion and  provided  for  freedom  of  the  press  and  of  opinions  and 
for  the  right  to  offer  the  truth  of  the  charges  as  evidence  "in 
prosecutions  for  the  publication  of  papers  investigating  the  offi- 
cial conduct  of  officers,  or  of  men  acting  in  a  public  capacity,  or 
where  the  matter  published  is  proper  for  public  information." 

The  deliberations  of  the  convention  on  the  schedule  and  on 
various  resolutions  which  were  ultimately  incorporated  in  it 
occupied  a  large  amount  of  time  and  are  of  considerable  interest, 
but  unfortunately  they  are  difficult  to  follow  because  the  reports 
of  the  committee  of  five  were  not  printed  in  full  as  was  the 
draft  of  the  constitution  proper.  The  principal  purpose  of  the 
schedule  was  to  provide  for  the  transition  from  territorial  to 
state  government.  Thus  it  directed  that  the  governor  and  all 
other  territorial  officers  should  continue  to  exercise  their  func- 
tions until  superseded,  and  that  all  suits  should  be  continued  "as 
if  no  change  had  taken  place."  One  of  the  sections  which  was 
evidently  the  subject  of  dispute  in  the  convention  was  number 
twelve  dealing  with  the  qualifications  of  voters  at  the  first  elec- 
tion. Section  twenty-seven  of  article  two,  as  has  been  noted, 
restricted  the  franchise  to  those  who  had  "resided  in  the  State 
six  months  next  preceding  the  election."  The  schedule  reported 
by  the  committee  apparently  proposed  no  modification  of  this  for 
the  first  election,  but  on  August  21,  Borough  of  Madison  offered 
a  resolution  to  extend  the  right  to  vote  on  that  occasion  to  all 
those  "who  are  actually  residing  in  the  state  at  the  time."  This 
resolution  received  its  second  reading  the  following  day  and  was 
then  rejected  by  vote  of  3  to  28.  It  is  significant  that  the  affirm- 
ative votes  were  cast  by  the  three  delegates  from  Madison,  the 
county  which  was  growing  most  rapidly  and  was  thus  most  inter- 
ested in  the  proposed  concession.  Three  days  later  Borough 


JESSE  B.  THOMAS 

[From  original  owned  by  Illinois  State  Historical  Library] 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  285 

made  another  attempt  with  a  resolution  extending  the  franchise 
at  the  first  election  to  those  "who  shall  be  actual  residents  of 
this  state  at  the  signing  of  this  constitution,"  a  three  weeks  resi- 
dence. The  Madison  county  delegation  must  have  won  over 
many  of  the  members  to  their  views  in  the  interval  for  this  reso- 
lution was  carried  by  vote  of  18  to  12.  The  affirmative  votes 
were  cast,  in  the  main,  by  the  representatives  from  those  counties 
in  which  the  population  was  increasing  most  rapidly. 

The  question  of  apportioning  members  of  the  legislature  until 
the  first  state  census  should  be  taken  was  the  subject  of  the  first 
report  of  the  committee  of  five,  presented  August  15;  it  ulti- 
mately became  section  eight  of  the  schedule.  This  provided  for 
fourteen  senators  and  twenty-six  representatives  specifically 
assigned  to  the  different  counties.  One  senator  was  allowed  to 
each  of  the  counties  except  Johnson  and  Jackson,  which  were  to 
form  a  single  senatorial  district.  An  analysis  of  the  apportion- 
ment of  representatives,  however,  shows  that  it  was  based  on  the 
retunis  of  the  census  just  taken.  One  representative  only  was 
given  to  each  county  having  less  than  two  thousand  inhabitants, 
two  to  each  having  between  two  and  three  thousand,  three  to 
each  having  over  three  thousand.  When  this  report  was  finally 
adopted  on  the  eighteenth,  the  only  change  was  to  link  Johnson 
county  with  Franklin  instead  of  Jackson  for  the  election  of  a 
senator.  This  was  a  logical  change  as  Franklin,  next  to  John- 
son had  the  smallest  population  and,  moreover,  was  contiguous 
to  Johnson,  whereas  Jackson  was  not.  The  schedule  contained 
also  four  sections  of  a  miscellaneous  character,  which  might  more 
logically  have  been  incorporated  in  the  constitution  proper.  One 
of  these,  relating  to  appointments,  has  already  been  considered. 
Another,  section  fourteen,  also  nullified  one  of  the  provisions  of 
the  constitution  proper — the  provision  requiring  the  lieutenant 
governor  to  have  the  same  qualifications  as  the  governor,  includ- 
ing citizenship  for  thirty  years.  The  section  reads  "any 
person  of  thirty  years  of  age  who  is  a  citizen  of  the  United  States 
and  has  resided  within  the  limits  of  this  State  two  years  next 
preceding  his  election,  shall  be  eligible  to  the  office  of  lieutenant- 
governor;  anything  in  the  thirteenth  section  of  the  third  article 


286  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

of  this  constitution  contained  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding."295 
Governor  Ford's  explanation  of  this  section,  doubtless  correct, 
is  that  "Col.  Pierre  Menard,  a  Frenchman,  and  an  old  settler  in 
the  country,  was  generally  looked  to  to  fill  the  office  of  lieutenant 
governor;  but  ....  he  had  not  been  naturalized  until  a  year 
or  so  before."298  The  legal  complications  which  might  have 
arisen,  had  Menard  been  called  upon  to  fill  the  governor's  office, 
would  be  an  interesting  subject  for  speculation. 

Section  four  of  the  schedule  determined  the  form  of  county 
government,  which  had  been  subject  to  frequent  change  during 
the  territorial  period  ;297  it  directed  that  "there  shall  be  elected  in 
each  county  three  county  commissioners  for  the  purpose  of  trans- 
acting all  county  business,  whose  time  of  service,  power,  and 
duties  shall  be  regulated  and  defined  by  law."  Section  eleven 
made  it  obligatory  upon  the  legislature  "to  enact  such  laws  as 
may  be  necessary  and  proper  to  prevent  the  practice  of  duelling." 
This  was  proposed  by  Mr.  Cairns  in  the  form  of  a  resolution  on 
August  20  and  later  was  incorporated  in  the  schedule.  Earlier 
in  the  same  day  Cairns  had  proposed  another  resolution  directing 
the  legislature  to  pass  laws  permitting  the  decision  of  differences 
by  arbitrators.  The  settlement  of  all  civil  disputes  in  this  man- 
ner had  been  advocated  in  one  of  the  communications  published 
in  the  Intelligencer  before  the  convention  assembled,  but  the  reso- 
lution was  rejected  without  a  division.  In  this  connection  it  is 
interesting  to  note  that  the  first  general  assembly  not  only  com- 
plied with  the  direction  of  the  convention  by  passing  a  stringent 
law  to  prevent  dueling,  but  also  enacted  another  law  "authorizing 
and  regulating  Arbitrations"298 

The  subject  of  the  location  of  the  capital  of  the  state,  which 
was  dealt  with  in  section  thirteen  of  the  schedule  as  finally 

""Thorpe,  Constitutions,  2  :g8s.  This  section  must  have  been  incorporated 
just  at  the  close  of  the  convention  as  there  is  no  record  of  it  in  the  only 
available  copy  of  the  "Journal." 

^Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  26. 
'"See  ch.  7,  above,  p.  194-195,  197-198. 

KiLaws  of  1819,  p.  32,  71-73.  The  former  was  modeled  on  an  act  passed 
by  the  governor  and  judges,  April  7,  1810;  the  latter  was  copied  from  the 
Indiana  code  of  1807.  Alvord,  Laws  of  the  Territory,  25-27;  Laws  of  the 
Indiana  Territory,  1807,  p.  175-179;  Pope's  Digest,  1:122-127;  Intelligencer, 
July  10,  1818. 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  287 

adopted,  occupied  a  large  amount  of  the  convention's  time  and 
was  more  bitterly  contested  than  any  other  question,  excepting 
that  of  slavery.  The  decision  of  this  question  was  no  necessary 
part  of  the  convention's  work  and  might  well  have  been  left  to 
the  future.  As  has  been  noted  the  memorial  asking  for  state- 
hood failed  to  request,  and  the  enabling  act  failed  to  grant  land 
for  a  capital  site,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  question  was 
raised  at  all  during  the  convention  campaign.  A  writer  well 
versed  in  the  traditions  which  have  come  down  from  that  period 
of  Illinois  history  claims  that  "there  was  no  demand  for  that 
change  at  that  time  by  the  people,  or  by  any  public  exigency.  It 
was  premature  and  unnecessary,  and  was  concocted  and  consum- 
mated by  a  lot  of  speculators  who  expected  to  reap  large  profits 
in  building  up  the  new  capital."299  The  question  appears  to  have 
come  up  as  a  result  of  "sundry  propositions  in  writing,  offering 
donations  to  the  state  of  land  &c.  from  the  proprietors  of  Pope's 
bluff,  Hill's  ferry,  and  Covington."800  These  places  were  all  sit- 
uated on  the  Kaskaskia  river  and  north  of  the  base  line  of  the 
government  surveys.  No  attempt  was  made  in  the  convention 
to  remove  the  capital  to  any  other  specific  place,  although  the 
proprietors  of  other  towns  undoubtedly  entertained,  or  had  enter- 
tained designs  upon  it.  An  example  is  Ripley,  situated  in  Bond 
county  on  Shoal  creek,  a  branch  of  the  Kaskaskia,  which  had 
been  advertising  its  advantages  in  the  Intelligencer.  Among  the 
attractions  enumerated  was  this :  "Its  central  and  eligible  situa- 
tion in  the  territory  gives  rise  to  a  strong  presumption,  that  it 
will  at  no  distant  period  become  the  seat  of  government."801 
Ripley  appears  to  have  withdrawn  in  favor  of  Hill's  Ferry,  for 
one  of  the  men  connected  with  the  speculation  was  Abraham 
Prickett,  the  member  of  the  convention  who  proposed  that  Hill's 
Ferry  be  selected  as  the  capital  site. 

Of  the  three  towns  presenting  proposals,  the  only  one  which 
apparently  had  any  population  at  the  time  was  Covington,  the 
county  seat  of  the  recently  organized  Washington  county.  Since 

*"Snyder,  Adam  W.  Snyder,  39-40. 

"""Journal,"  p.  51,  in  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Journal,  6:403. 

^Intelligencer,  June  3,  1818. 


288  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

May  a  prospective  sale  of  town  lots  had  been  advertised  by  the 
proprietors,  who  called  attention  especially  to  the  situation  of 
the  town  "near  the  centre  of  the  territorial  population,  and 
....  surrounded  by  a  rich  beautiful  and  extensive  tract  of 
country ;  the  site  is  high,  dry  and  healthy,  extending  one  mile  on 
the  margin  of  the  Kaskaskia  river,  the  navigation  of  which,  is 
good  from  thence  to  its  confluence  with  the  Mississippi,  a  distance 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles.  The  roads  from  any  landings 
on  the  Ohio  river,  between  the  mouth  of  the  Wabash  and 
Frazier's  ferry  to  Edwardsville,  St.  Louis,  and  the  principal  set- 
tlements in  the  Missouri  territory,  must  inevitably  pass  through 
this  town,  by  which  the  advantage  of  excellent  roads  will  be 
obtained,  and  the  distance  in  comparison  with  the  roads  now  in 
use  diminished  more  than  15  miles."  With  the  issue  of  the 
Intelligencer  of  July  29,  the  advertisement  announced  that  an 
auction  of  town  lots  would  begin  the  fourth  Monday  in  Septem- 
ber. No  mention  was  made,  however,  of  any  possibility  that 
the  town  might  be  selected  for  the  state  capital. 

Hill's  Ferry  was  located  where  the  Vincennes  road  crossed 
the  Kaskaskia  river  in  what  is  now  Clinton  county — the  site 
of  the  present  town  of  Carlyle.  In  1818,  the  log  cabin  of  the 
man  who  kept  the  ferry  is  said  to  have  been  the  only  house 
on  the  site.  The  desirability  of  the  location  had  been  recog- 
nized, however,  and  the  land  on  both  sides  of  the  river  had  been 
entered  by  non-resident  speculators.  In  1816  Charles  Slade 
bought  from  John  Hill  the  quarter  section  on  which  the  ferry 
was  located  and  before  1818  he  entered  the  remainder  of  that 
section  and  a  large  part  of  the  adjoining  one.  Not  until  Septem- 
ber was  the  place  advertised  under  the  name  Carlyle.  Then  its 
attractions  were  set  forth  as  follows: 

THIS  TOWN  is  beautifully  situated  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  Kaskaskia  river,  at  the  well  known  crossing 
of  Hill's  Ferry — The  great  notoriety  of  this  situation 
renders  it  necessary  for  the  proprietors  to  state  but  a 
few  facts  relative  thereto — That  the  site  is  singularly 
advantageous,  being  at  the  head  of  navigation  for  boats 
of  any  considerable  burthen,  the  river  diminishing  in 
size  after  losing  the  Hurricane  and  east  forks  which 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  289 

empty  themselves  into  the  Kaskaskia  a  few  miles  above, 
having  the  great  United  States  road  from  Vincennes  to 
St.  Louis,  the  roads  from  Shawaneetown,  the  Saline 
and  the  Ferries  on  the  lower  Ohio,  to  the  mouth  of 
Missouri  and  the  great  Sangamo  country  passing  thro' 
its  principal  street,  being  high  and  airy,  affording  most 
excellent  spring  and  well  water,  and  being  surrounded 
by  a  country  so  rich  and  so  equally  diversified  with 
wood  and  prairie  as  at  once  to  invite  and  insure  a 
crouded  populatron  [ sic]  .302 

Pope's  Bluff  was  still  farther  north  on  the  Kaskaskia  river,  in 
the  southwestern  part  of  Bond  county.  The  southern  half  of  the 
section  was  entered  in  1816  by  Nathaniel  Pope,  and  just  two  days 
after  the  site  was  proposed  for  the  capital  in  the  convention, 
sections  thirteen  and  fourteen  and  the  remainder  of  section  fifteen 
were  entered  by  the  firm  of  "Pope,  Messenger  and  Stephen- 
son."  The  motion  to  accept  the  propositions  of  the  proprietors 
of  Pope's  Bluff  came  from  Leonard  White,  who,  though  a  repre- 
sentative from  Gallatin  county,  was  in  close  touch  with  these 
members  of  the  Edwards  faction.  The  place  was  not  adver- 
tised in  the  Intelligencer  either  before  or  after  the  convention. 

The  offers  of  land  from  the  proprietors  of  each  of  these  three 
places  were  laid  before  the  convention  by  the  committee  of  five 
on  Tuesday,  August  18.  At  the  opening  of  the  session  on 
Thursday,  it  was  resolved,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Kitchell,  "that  it  is 
expedient  at  this  time  to  remove  the  seat  of  government  from 
the  town  of  Kaskaskia."  Mr.  Card  of  Edwards  county  at  once 
offered  a  resolution  for  the  appointment  of  a  committee  of  five 
"to  view  the  sites  on  the  Kaskaskia  river,  above  the  base  line,  and 
report  ....  to  the  next  general  assembly."  The  convention 
had  no  intention  of  leaving  the  decision  to  the  legislature,  how- 
ever, and  the  resolution  was  voted  down.  Bankson  of  Washing- 
ton then  offered  a  resolution  for  the  location  of  the  capital  at 
Covington  but  that  also  was  rejected.  Then  Kane  proposed, 
with  no  more  success,  "that  the  seat  of  government  be  located 
at  the  town  of  Kaskaskia  five  years."  After  resolutions  in  favor 

*" 'History  of  Marion  and  Clinton  Counties,  52,  174;  land  office  records  in 
Springfield  ;  Intelligencer,  September  9,  1818. 


290  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

of  Pope's  Bluff  and  Hill's  Ferry  had  been  offered  and  rejected, 
Kane  tried  again  with  a  resolution  "that  the  seat  of  government 
be  located  for  four  years  at  the  town  of  Kaskaskia,  after  which 
time,  the  general  assembly  shall  have  power  to  remove  the  same." 
This  was  also  rejected  as  was  another  resolution,  proposed  by 
Hubbard  for  the  appointment  of  commissioners  "to  examine  the 
geographical  situation  of  the  state,  taking  into  view  the  popula- 
tion thereof,  and  the  eligibility  of  the  most  prominent,  and  as 
they  may  conceive  the  most  convenient  places  and  report  the  same 
to  the  next  session  of  the  general  assembly,  who  may  either  reject 
the  whole  or  select  some  one  from  among  the  places  reported,  for 
the  seat  of  government  for  this  state."  It  seemed  to  be  impos- 
sible to  reach  an  agreement  and  the  convention,  in  desperation, 
postponed  further  consideration  of  the  question. 

The  next  day,  Friday  the  twenty-first,  Gard  offered  a  resolu- 
tion evidently  designed  to  take  the  whole  question  of  the  location 
of  the  capital  out  of  the  field  of  private  speculation.  He  pro- 
posed to  make  it  "the  duty  of  the  general  assembly  at  their  first 
session  to  petition  congress  for  the  right  of  pre-emption  of  four 
sections  of  land  on  the  Kaskaskia  river  as  near  as  may  be,  east 
of  the  third  principal  meridian  on  said  river,  to  be  selected  by 
five  commissioners.  If  the  grant  should  be  made,  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  aforesaid  assembly,  at  their  next  session  after  the 
grant  is  made,  to  lay  out  a  town,  which  shall  be  the  permanent 
seat  of  government  for  the  state  of  Illinois,  but  if  the  grant 
should  not  be  made  by  congress,  in  that  case  it  shall  be  the  duty 
of  the  general  assembly  to  fix  on  some  other  place,  that  they  shall 
think  best  for  that  seat."  This  resolution  was  carried  by  vote 
of  1 8  to  13,  and  on  Saturday  it  passed  second  reading  without  a 
division.  At  third  reading  on  Monday  Gard  offered  a  substitute 
elaborating  some  of  the  details  and  directing  that  congress  be 
requested  either  to  grant  the  land  to  the  state  or  to  allow  it  the 
right  of  preemption.  White  then  moved  to  strike  out  all  except 
the  first  sentence  of  the  substitute,  which  read:  "The  seat  of 
government  for  the  State  shall  be  at  Kaskaskia  until  the  general 
assembly  shall  otherwise  provide."  This  would  have  given  the 
speculators  another  chance  before  the  legislature,  but  the  motion 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  291 

was  lost  by  vote  of  15  to  16,  "the  president  refusing  to  vote  in 
the  affirmative."  Kane  then  moved  to  amend  the  substitute  so 
as  to  make  the  proposed  site  the  seat  of  government  for  twenty 
years,  instead  of  permanently,  and  this  was  carried  by  vote  of 
25  to  6,  after  which  the  substitute  was  adopted  and  incorporated 
in  the  schedule  without  a  division. 

The  reason  for  requiring  the  proposed  site  of  the  capital  to  be 
located  east  of  the  meridian  seems  to  have  been  to  get  it  on  unsur- 
veyed  and  unentered  lands  so  that  the  state  instead  of  individuals 
might  reap  the  profits  from  the  sale  of  lots.  Such  a  location 
would  be  far  from  the  settled  parts  of  the  state  for  some  time, 
however,  and  it  is  not  strange  that  the  scheme  called  forth  pro- 
tests. One  of  these  took  the  form  of  a  remonstrance  counter  to 
the  petition  which  the  first  legislature  sent  to  congress  in  con- 
formity with  the  instructions  of  the  convention.  This  declared 
that  "the  proposed  seat  of  government  is  not  in  a  central  situa- 
tion. Neither  is  it  in  the  centre  of  the  population,  nor  is  there 
any  probability  that  it  ever  will  be  so.  Situated  on  the  Kas- 
kaskia  river,  far  above  the  head  of  navigation,  in  a  part  of  the 
country,  which,  as  we  are  credibly  informed,  is  naturally  un- 
healthy, the  only  inducements  which  people  can  have  to  settle  in 
such  a  town  must  be  derived  from  a  biennial  session  of  a  General 
Assembly  composed  of  forty-two  members!  Is  it  possible,  we 
ask,  that  the  legislature  can  be  accommodated  at  such  a  place 
and  under  such  circumstances,  without  putting  the  state  to  an 
expense  which  will  greatly  outweigh  all  the  profits  to  be  derived 
from  a  beggarly  speculation  in  village  lots?"808 

The  contest  in  the  convention  over  the  location  of  the  capital 
is  the  only  one  in  which  the  territorial  factions  appear  to  have 
played  a  part.  An  examination  of  the  votes  does  not  show,  as 
might  have  been  expected,  an  alignment  of  the  northern  against 
the  southern  counties.  It  shows,  on  the  other  hand,  such  men 
as  White,  Stephenson,  and  Messinger,  recognized  members  of 
the  Edwards  faction,  working  together  to  promote  a  scheme  for 
land  speculation,  in  which  they  were  defeated  by  the  votes  of 
such  men  as  Kane,  Thomas,  and  Jones,  well-known  opponents 

""House  Files,  December  9,  1818. 


292  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

of  the  Edwards  group.  The  contest  moreover,  illustrates  clearly 
the  fact  that  the  leaders  of  one  of  these  factions  at  least  were 
bound  to  each  other  by  business  as  well  as  by  political  ties. 

When  the  first  constitutional  convention  of  Illinois  completed 
its  work  on  August  26,  1818,  it  had  been  in  session  twenty-one 
days.  Nine  days  had  passed  before  the  draft  of  the  constitution 
was  available  for  consideration.  In  the  twelve  remaining  days 
much  time  was  devoted  to  a  question  which  did  not  concern  the 
frame  of  government,  yet  in  that  short  period  the  representatives 
of  the  people  of  Illinois  discussed  and  determined  the  varied  fea- 
tures of  the  instrument  which  was  to  be  the  fundamental  basis  of 
the  government  of  the  state  for  thirty  years.  It  was  not  custom- 
ary at  that  time  to  submit  constitutions  to  a  vote  of  the  people 
and  no  suggestion  of  such  a  procedure  appears  to  have  been 
made.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  people  were  probably  satis- 
fied with  the  work  of  the  convention.  The  inhabitants  of  Kas- 
kaskia  indicated  their  approval  by  a  celebration  which  the  Intel- 
ligencer of  September  2  described  as  follows: 

On  Wednesday  last,  the  constitution  for  the  state  of 
Illinois,  was  signed,  and  the  convention  adjourned  sine 
die.  On  this  important  occasion,  the  citizens  of  the 
town  assembled  to  fire  a  federal  salute  to  perpetuate 
the  remembrance  of  the  day  when  our  constitution  was 
signed  and  sealed.  As  many  of  the  independent  com- 
pany of  the  town  as  were  requisite  to  man  the  field 
piece,  appeared  at  the  capitol,  in  uniform,  with  their 
colours  flying,  (being  the  flag  of  the  union  as  adopted 
by  the  last  act  of  congress,)  accompanied  by  the  prin- 
cipal field  officers.  Upon  the  signing  of  the  constitu- 
tion, and  the  convention  being  about  to  adjourn  they 
were  invited  by  the  committee  of  arrangements  to  join 
in  the  feu  de  joie. 

The  field  piece  was  placed  in  front  of  the  capitol,  the 
military  officers  a  few  paces  in  its  rear — the  governor, 
secretary,  delegate  to  congress,  and  most  of  the  terri- 
torial officers,  accompanying  the  members  of  the  con- 
vention, took  their  positions  a  few  paces  in  the  rear: 
The  salute  was  commenced — 20  rounds  were  fired,  and 
one  for  the  new  state  of  Illinois,  which  was  accom- 
panied by  the  following  pledge,  from  the  independent 
corps: 


/ 


i  the  rtoiic/tu/  (ici't^i  HIM*  it/  MJ  if 

0  ~  $ 


CrritOTX)  ,  f.r 
it/  MJ  if  i 
jH'  of  tfu  1 


flu  W,<  , 
ttf  t(u 

I 


Ml- 


t       u.  Wiu#w  . 


JSlJt,  )  8  >  8  ."  (A^iiiiA  "^/ii  ,u^/  C<  wafo.  tfu  ftiLdfale  vjtftt  titf 
vmufaiMi  to  fWm  a  ('•mijlittditnv  msnd  rflate 

(7  ' 

'K»L  //u  lulvn-ifaiOH  t'f  4tw<^i  kittle  Jnfo  (Ju 

a 


UtttMibk  utitUt.  , 


iAf 


itifu  t4  liJu'iUt  lo 


(lit 
tut 


to 


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a(  tt'u 


to 


t  <>(-»<!  >u 


aajn>  \ 


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t/u  fniiddii. 


t' 


t-ft  t/it  /nujjjlft  ol  ,iaJ.<i 

ifiuUi^  /tnimUt)  ;t/»>H 

J 


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(Photograph  from  the  original  text  of  the  Constitution  in  office  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  Springfield] 


FRAMING  THE  CONSTITUTION  293 

'Under  these  colours,  we  pledge  ourselves  to  support 
the  constitution  of  Illinois.' 

This  was  truly  a  proud  day  for  the  citizens  of  Illinois 
— a  day  on  which  hung  the  prosperity  and  hopes  of 
thousands  yet  to  follow — a  day  which  will  long  be 
remembered  &  spoken  of  with  enthusiastic  pride;  as  a 
day  connected  with  the  permanent  prosperity  of  our 
literary,  political  and  religious  institutions — as  the 
main  pillar  in  the  edifice  of  our  state  independence,  and 
justly  the  basis  of  our  future  greatness. 

The  united  exertions  of  our  representatives  have  fur- 
nished us  with  a  wise  and  republican  constitution — 
distributing  to  all  classes  their  just  rights.  It  now 
behoves  us  as  faithful  citizens  to  protect  it  from 
encroachment:  And  in  the  language  of  the  immortal 
Washington,  to  cherish  a  cordial  and  immovable  attach- 
ment to  it — accustoming  ourselves  to  think  and  speak 
of  it  as  the  palladium  of  our  political  safety  &  prosper- 
ity— watching  for  its  preservation  with  jealous  anxiety 
—discountenancing  whatever  may  suggest  even  a  sus- 
picion that  it  can  in  any  event  be  abandoned. 


CHAPTER  XI 

A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION 

The  first  election  of  state  and  county  officers  in  Illinois  took 
place  on  September  17-19,  1818,  as  provided  for  in  the  consti- 
tution. The  campaign  for  state  officers  was  necessarily  a  brief 
one,  for  not  until  the  convention  met  was  it  known  whether  or 
not  it  could  or  would  proceed  to  form  a  state  government,  and 
not  until  the  convention  had  accomplished  its  work  was  it  known 
just  what  officers  were  to  be  elected.  The  interest  in  the  elec- 
tion, however,  centered  not  in  the  choice  of  state  and  county 
officers  but  in  that  of  a  representative  to  congress,  and  for  this 
there  had  been  a  long  campaign.  The  Intelligencer  of  April  22, 
1818,  announced  for  Mr.  Pope  "his  determination  to  retire 
from  public  life."  Two  weeks  later,  May  6,  the  paper 
announced  Daniel  P.  Cook  "a  candidate  for  Congress  to  repre- 
sent us  in  the  Lower  House,"  and  on  May  20  it  stated  that 
John  McLean  of  Shawneetown  was  "a  Candidate  for  Congress 
to  represent  the  people  of  this  territory  in  the  next  Congress  of 
the  United  States."  The  form  of  the  announcements  would 
indicate  that  these  men  were  candidates  for  either  territorial 
delegate  or  state  representative  as  events  might  determine,  and 
on  June  10,  when  it  was  very  doubtful  if  the  requisite  population 
for  statehood  could  be  found,  the  paper  made  an  authorized 
statement  that  Cook  would  "cheerfully  serve"  in  the  capacity 
of  delegate.  The  following  week  Shadrach  Bond  was  announced 
as  "a  Candidate  for  Delegate  to  Congress  from  this  territory." 

Cook  and  McLean,  although  they  had  been  in  the  territory 
but  three  or  four  years,  were  identified  with  the  Edwards  and 
anti-Edwards  factions  respectively.  Both  were  young  and 
clever  lawyers.  Bond,  on  the  other  hand,  was  at  least  twenty 

(294) 


A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION 


295 


years  older  than  either  of  his  opponents  and  had  been  in  Illinois 
for  twenty-four  years.  He  was  a  farmer,  with  only  average 
education  and  ability,  but  from  an  early  period  he  had  been 
popular  with  the  voters.  They  had  kept  him  in  the  Indiana 
legislature  as  long  as  Illinois  was  a  part  of  that  territory,  and 
at  the  first  election  in  Illinois  they  gave  him  the  highest  office 
in  their  power,  that  of  delegate  to  congress.  Although  identi- 
fied with  neither  of  the  territorial  factions,  he  was  better  known 
on  both  sides  of  the  territory  than  either  Cook  or  McLean  and 
his  chances  for  election  were  very  good.  Cook's  address  "to 


BUILDING  IN  WHICH  TERRITORIAL  LEGISLATURE  FIRST  MET  IN  KASKASKIA 

[Drawing  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 

the  electors  of  Illinois,"  written  July  first,  indicates  that  he 
considered  Bond  the  most  dangerous  rival.  In  one  place  he 
says:  "You  are  gravely  told,  fellow  citizens,  that  I  am  too 
young  to  represent  you  ....  if  men  who  have  but  just 
passed  the  age  of  25,  are  better  qualified  than  men  of  45,  the 
public  interest  is  consulted  and  promoted  by  their  election,"  and 
in  another:  "A  distinction  fellow  citizens,  is  attempted  to  be 
made,  between  farmers  and  lawyers."  A  month  later  he  wrote 
to  Edwards  from  Golconda :  "McLean  it  is  said,  will  beat  Bond 
four  to  one  in  Crawford,  Edwards,  White,  and  Gallatin."804 
Evidently  the  wish  was  father  to  the  thought  and  Cook  preferred 

^Intelligencer,  July  8,   1818;  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  145. 


296  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

that  the  voters  of  the  eastern  counties,  where  he  could  expect 
little  support,  should  cast  their  ballots  for  McLean  rather  than 
for  Bond. 

In  the  middle  of  August,  when  statehood  was  practically 
assured,  election  to  congress  became  much  more  desirable.  Yet 
it  was  just  at  this  time  that  Bond  dropped  o'ut  of  the  race.  In 
the  Intelligencer  of  August  19  he  addressed  "The  Citizens  of 
the  Illinois  Territory"  as  follows:  "The  formation  of  a  con- 
stitution, and  the  organization  of  a  state  government,  will  put 
an  end  to  the  office  of  delegate  to  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States :  I  wish  therefore,  no  longer  to  be  considered  a  candidate 
for  that  appointment.  Repeated  and  numerous  applications  have 
been  made  to  be  [sic}  me,  to  become  a  candidate  for  the  office 
of  Governor  of  the  NEW  STATE.  It  is  my  pleasure  and  duty 
to  yield  to  this  expression  of  the  public  wish.  Should  my  fellow- 
citizens,  therefore,  think  proper  to  elect  me  to  this  important 
station,  I  promise  them  diligence  and  fidelity  in  the  performance 
of  the  duties  thereby  enjoined."  While  no  positive  evidence  is 
available  on  the  subject,  it  is  fair,  to  assume  that  the  "repeated 
and  numerous  applications"  came  in  part  at  least  from  friends 
of  Cook  and  McLean  who  were  anxious  to  get  Bond  out  of  the 
race  for  congress.  The  failure  of  either  of  the  factions  to  put 
up  a  candidate  for  governor  against  Bond  would  indicate  that 
there  was  an  understanding  on  the  subject. 

With  Bond  out  of  the  race,  the  congressional  campaign  became 
not  only  a  contest  between  the  rival  factions  but  also  one  between 
the  east  and  west.  This  was  due  not  so  much  to  antagonism 
between  the  two  sections  as  to  the  propensity  of  the  voters  to  cast 
their  ballots  for  the  man  they  knew  personally.  Neither  candi- 
date was  well  known  except  on  the  side  of  the  territory  in  which 
he  resided.805 

Earlier  in  the  campaign  the  slavery  question  had  played  a 
considerable  part.  Cook's  opposition  to  slavery  as  an  institu- 
tion was  made  known  by  his  communications  in  the  Intelligencer 

"""On  June  12,  John  Law  of  Vincennes  wrote  Kane:  "Is  there  a  prob- 
ability of  McLeans  election  ....  he  is  considered  as  a  popular  candidate 
on  this  side  of  the  Territory."  Chicago  Historical  Society  manuscripts, 
54  -57- 


A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION  297 

of  February  4  and  April  i,  over  the  recognized  signature  of  "A 
republican,"  while  McLean  was  at  a  later  period  an  out  and  out 
proslavery  man  and  doubtless  favored  the  institution  at  this  time. 
In  the  Intelligencer  of  June  24,  however,  "A  citizen"  expressed 
a  desire  to  know  the  "candid  and  impartial  sentiments"  of  the 
candidates  for  congress  "as  it  respects  the  toleration  of  slavery." 
"On  this  important  point,"  he  continued,  "it  will  be  well  for  every 
man  to  inquire  before  he  gives  his  vote — and  to  enquire  of  the 
candidate,  in  the  presence  of  those  of  an  opposite  opinion  to  him- 
self, so  that  he  may  not  flinch,  and  act  the  camelion,  as,  I  fear, 
some  of  our  candidates  are  doing."  Late  in  July  Cook  issued 
a  statement  over  his  own  name,  which  begins:  "In  pursuance 
of  a  wish  expressed  by  many  who  are  opposed  to  slavery,  and 
who  wish  for  an  expression  of  the  public  sentiment  on  that  sub- 
ject in  the  Congressional  election,  I  beg  leave  to  state  through 
the  medium  of  the  Intelligencer,  that  I  am  decidedly  opposed  to 
the  toleration  of  slavery  in  this  territory."  In  his  letter  of 
August  3  from  Golconda,  already  referred  to,  Cook  wrote :  tfl 
made  a  speech  and  excited  warm  opposition  from  slavemen,  but 
still  warmer  support  from  freemen"506 

The  action  of  the  convention  narrowed  the  slavery  issue  in 
the  congressional  campaign  to  the  question  of  whether  or  not 
the  candidates,  if  elected,  would  support  the  application  for  state- 
hood under  the  constitution  as  adopted.  The  antislavery  men, 
in  their  address  to  the  "friends  of  freedom"  published  just  as 
the  convention  was  assembling,  appealed  to  them  to  elect  a  dele- 
gate opposed  to  slavery  and  to  use  every  possible  means  to  prevent 
the  ratification  by  congress  of  a  proslavery  constitution.  The 
more  radical  of  these  men  undoubtedly  considered  the  slavery 
article  of  the  constitution  unsatisfactory  and  would  gladly  have 
voted  for  a  candidate  who  would  oppose  ratification.  On  the 
day  after  the  constitution  was  signed,  Cook  prepared  a  statement 
in  which  he  said:  "It  is  questioned  by  some,  whether  I  will 

""Intelligencer,  June  24,  July  29,  1818;  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  145. 
Lippincott  in  his  "Early  Days  in  Madison  County,"  no.  13,  says:  "All  I 
knew  or  heard  of  the  candidates  in  their  first  canvas  was  that  Mr.  McLean 
was  in  favor  of  slavery  and  Mr.  Cook  opposed  to  it."  See  also  Churchill, 
"Annotations,"  no.  3. 


298  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

support  the  constitution  of  our  state  in  congress  if  elected. 
When  it  is  known  that  I  was  the  first  person  in  the  state  who 
urged  the  propriety  of  petitioning  congress  for  leave  to  form  a 
state  government,  by  an  address  to  the  legislature  thro'  the  public 
print;  it  can  scarcely  be  supposed  that  I  am  unfriendly  to  a 
change  of  the  government."  He  would,  he  declared,  use  his 
"best  exertions  to  procure  a  ratification  of  the  constitution."307 

That  the  opposition  of  the  Edwards  men  to  the  plan  adopted 
by  the  convention  for  locating  the  state  capital  was  being  used 
against  Cook  is  indicated  by  another  part  of  the  same  statement. 
"It  is  insinuated,"  he  wrote,  "that  I  will  not  wish  the  seat  of 
government  to  be  fixed  as  the  Convention  has  provided;  to  this 
insinuation  I  will  remark  that  it  can  only  have  grown  out  of  a 
wish  to  defeat  my  election. — I  shall  endeavor  if  elected,  to  pro- 
cure the  grant  which  it  is  made  the  duty  of  the  legislature  to  peti- 
tion for."  In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  when 
Edwards  came  up  for  reelection  to  the  United  States  senate  in 
1819,  he  was  charged  with  being  opposed  to  the  donation  of  land 
for  a  capital  site. 

When  the  election  was  over,  it  was  found  that  McLean  had 
carried  two  western  counties,  Randolph  and  Washington.  In 
the  eastern  counties  where  Cook  thought  that  McLean  would  beat 
Bond  four  to  one,  he  beat  Cook  himself  eight  to  one.  Yet  so 
large  was  Cook's  vote  in  the  populous  counties  of  the  northwest 
that  McLean's  total  majority  was  only  fourteen.808  The  man 
who  more  than  any  other  is  entitled  to  the  credit  for  the  achieve- 
ment of  statehood  by  Illinois  in  1818  was  obliged  to  content  him- 
self for  the  time  being  with  a  minor  state  office. 

In  the  election  of  state  and  county  officers  there  was  no  general 
issue  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  political  factions  p^ed 
any  considerable  part.  The  principal  factor  was  doubtless  the 
personal  popularity  of  the  respective  candidates.  An  editorial 
in  the  Intelligencer  of  September  16,  emphasized  the  importance 
of  the  election  as  "one  which  combines  greater  interest  than  any 

*" Intelligencer,  August  5,  September  2,  1818. 

**Ibid.,  September  23,  October  7,  1818;  Illinois  Emigrant,  October  17,  1818; 
Niles'  Register,  15:192.  The  Intelligencer  of  October  14,  gives  McLean's 
majority  as  six.  Compare  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  155. 


SHADRACH  BOND 

[From  original  painting  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 


A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION  299 

heretofore,  or  which  may  shortly  follow  ....  Seven  differ- 
ent grades  of  civil  officers  are  to  be  elected — In  this  election,  we 
are  all  vitally  interested.  The  convention  has  left  much  for  the 
legislature  to  do,  and  independent  of  the  selections  they  have  to 
make,  of  other  officers,  to  fill  highly  responsible  stations,  their 
task  will  be  no  easy  one.  It  will  be  such  a  one  as  will  require 
the  first  talents  in  the  state  to  perform;  as  it  may  be  supposed, 
that  they  will  not  only  go  into  the  work  of  general  legislation, 
but  make  a  complete  revision  of  our  territorial  laws.  Who  that 
possesses  the  smallest  spark  of  public  spirit  can  withhold  his 
suffrage  when  so  much  is  at  stake?" 

As  has  been  seen,  Shadrach  Bond  had  a  clear  field  for  the 
important  post  of  governor.  Only  in  Madison  county,  so  far 
as  is  known  from  the  incomplete  returns  available,  were  any 
ballots  cast  against  him.  There  nineteen  voters  indicated  their 
preference  for  Henry  Reavis,  of  whom  nothing  is  known  except 
that  his  name  appears  in  the  census  schedule  for  Madison  county. 
It  would  seem  as  though  their  only  object  must  have  been  to 
show  opposition  to  Bond.  It  may  be  significant  also  that  in  St. 
Clair  county  the  ballots  cast  for  governor  numbered  117  less  than 
the  total  vote  for  sheriff.809 

For  the  office  of  lieutenant  governor  there  were  three  candi- 
dates, Pierre  Menard,  William  L.  Reynolds,  and  Edward  N. 
Cullom.  Menard  was  a  French-Canadian  who  had  settled  in 
Kaskaskia  about  1791.  Like  Bond  he  had  been  popular  with 
the  voters.  He  had  represented  Randolph  county  in  the  legis- 
lature of  Indiana  territory,  and  in  every  session  of  the  Illinois 
territorial  legislature  he  had  presided  over  the  council.  It  was 
natural  that  he  should  be  chosen  to  fill  a  similar  position  under 
the  state  government,  and,  as  has  been  seen,  a  section  had  been 
inserted  in  the  schedule  of  the  constitution  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  making  that  possible.  Reynolds  was  a  physician  from  Ken- 
tucky who  located  in  Kaskaskia  in  1809.  In  December,  1817,  he 
gave  up  his  practice  on  account  of  ill  health,  but  the  next  July 
he  announced  his  return  to  Kaskaskia  and  the  resumption  of 
his  profession.  He  had  never  held  any  political  office  in  the 

""Churchill,  "Annotations,"  no.  7;  History  of  St.  Clair  County  (1881),  72. 


300  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

territory.  Cullom  was  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  Crawford 
county.  Coming  from  Kentucky,  he  had  settled  at  Palestine  in 
1814  and  had  served  in  the  territorial  legislature  and  in  the  con- 
vention. Neither  of  these  men  had  the  slightest  chance  against 
Menard.  Cullom  carried  his  own  county,  Reynolds  carried 
White  and  Pope,  but  both  together  received  less  than  half  the 
total  vote.  This  result  indicates  what  might  have  happened  in 
the  contest  for  representative  to  congress,  had  Bond  remained 
in  the  race. 

The  number  of  candidates  for  seats  in  the  legislature,  judging 
from  the  counties  for  which  returns  are  available,  was  generally 
about  twice  the  number  of  positions  to  be  filled.310  Conspicuous 
among  these  candidates  were  at  least  thirteen  members  of  the 
convention,  twelve  of  whom  were  elected,  five  to  the  senate  and 
seven  to  the  house.  The  thirteenth  was  Dr.  Fisher  of  Randolph, 
who  was  defeated  for  the  senatorship  by  McFerron,  over  whom 
he  had  been  victorious  in  the  convention  election.  Thomas  Cox, 
an  unsuccessful  candidate  for  the  convention  in  Union  county, 
was  elected  to  the  senate,  while  the  three  representatives  of  the 
county  in  the  convention  were  returned  to  the  lower  house. 
Similarly,  in  Madison  county,  George  Cadwell,  who  had  received 
only  a  light  vote  in  the  convention  election,  secured  the  senator- 
ship.  Green  B.  Field,  elected  to  the  house  of  representatives  in 
Pope  county,  had  also  been  an  unsuccessful  candidate  for  a  seat 
in  the  convention. 

The  most  surprising  thing  about  the  personnel  of  the  first  state 
legislature  is  the  fact  that  only  two  of  its  members  had  served 
in  the  legislature  of  Illinois  territory,  Willis  Hargrave  of  White 
and  Risdon  Moore  of  St.  Clair.  Among  the  unsuccessful  candi- 
dates who  had  been  members  of  the  territorial  legislature  was 
John  Grammar  of  Union  county.  Two  of  the  men  elected,  John 
Messinger  of  St.  Clair  and  George  Cadwell  of  Madison,  had  been 
members  of  the  Indiana  legislature  before  the  division.  Another 

"'For  Menard,  Reynolds,  and  Cullom  see  Mason,  Early  Chicago  and 
Illinois,  142-161 ;  Reynolds,  Pioneer  History,  291,  368 ;  Intelligencer,  January 
i»  July  I5»  1818;  Perrin,  History  of  Crawford  and  Clark  Counties,  32.  For 
announcements  of  candidates  and  election  returns,  see  Intelligencer,  July  15, 
August  12,  August  19,  August  26,  September  9,  September  23,  October  7,  1818; 
Churchill,  "Annotations,"  no.  7;  History  of  St.  Clair  County  (1881),  72. 


A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION  301 

candidate  who  had  served  in  the  Indiana  legislature  was  William 
Biggs  of  St.  Clair  county,  who  ran  for  the  senate;  he  was 
defeated,  however,  by  William  Kinney,  a  Baptist  minister,  who 
had  never  held  office  in  Illinois  before.811  The  election  of  Kin- 
ney and  of  another  clergyman,  Scott  Riggs  of  Crawford  county, 
is  an  interesting  commentary  on  the  action  of  the  convention  in 
rejecting  the  proposed  section  of  the  constitution  which  would 
have  made  ministers  ineligible  to  seats  in  the  legislature.  Kinney 
was  the  only  member  of  the  senate  who  had  not  previously  held 
some  office  of  more  or  less  importance,  but  there  were  eleven 
such  men  in  the  house.  On  the  whole  it  would  seem  that  the 
first  state  legislature  was  made  up  largely  of  men  with  little  or 
no  experience  which  would  tend  to  fit  them  for  the  important 
work  to  be  done.  Even  Nathaniel  Pope,  who  in  spite  of  his 
announced  determination  to  retire  from  public  life  had  been  a 
candidate  for  the  house  in  Randolph  county,  was  defeated  by 
two  men  without  political  experience.812  It  may  be  that  the 
people  believed  in  rotation  in  office,  and  this  explanation  would 
also  serve  to  account  for  the  fact  that  only  eight  of  the  twenty- 
eight  members  of  this  house  of  representatives  were  reflected 
during  the  next  ten  years. 

The  first  general  assembly  of  the  state  of  Illinois  convened  at 
Kaskaskia  on  Monday,  October  5,  1818.  The  governor  and 
lieutenant  governor  were  qualified  the  following  day  and  the 
governor  then  delivered  his  message.  Before  outlining  the  work 
to  be  done  by  the  legislature  he  pleaded  for  an  abatement  of 
party  spirit.  "If  the  minds  of  any  of  us,"  he  said,  "have  here- 
tofore been  infected  with  a  spirit  of  division  which  had  not  its 
foundation  in  a  difference  of  principle;  if  the  conduct  of  any 
has  been  hitherto  influenced  by  unmerited  partially  [sic]  or  unjust 
resentment,  let  it  be  remembered  that  the  period  has  now  arrived 
when  the  public  good  and  public  justice  imperiously  require  the 

""Kinney  took  a  prominent  part  in  politics  thereafter  and  was  a  candidate 
for  governor  against  John  Reynolds  in  1830. 

'"Two  months  later,  Pope  was^  appointed  by  the  president  register  of  the 
land  office  at  Edwardsville  and  in  March,  1810,  he  was  appointed  United 
States  judge  for  the  district  of  Illinois,  a  position  which  he  held  until  his 
death  in  1850.  Intelligencer,  December  9,  1818 ;  Moses,  Illinois,  1 1237. 


302 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


extinguishment  of  that  spirit,  and  the  pursuance  of  a  course  of 
conduct  that  will  do  justice  and  do  good." 

On  the  same  day,  "the  governor  nominated  and  the  senate 
confirmed  the  appointment  of  Elias  Kent  Kane,  Esq.  to  the 
office  of  secretary  of  state."813  Although  Kane  was  a  leader 
of  one  of  the  political  factions,  his  selection  was  probably  due  to 
a  recognition  of  his  qualifications  for  the  office.  In  the  con- 
vention Kane  had  demonstrated  his  ability  to  do  the  sort  of 
work  that  would  be  required  of  him  as  secretary  of  state.  He 
had  been  especially  useful  in  proposing  changes  to  bring  the  vari- 
ous sections  of  the  constitution  into  harmony  with  each  other 


GOVERNOR  BOND'S  HOME  IN  KASKASKIA 

[Drawing  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 

and  to  improve  the  English  of  the  document.  Just  such  a  man 
was  needed  by  Governor  Bond,  who  was,  to  quote,  an  early 
writer,  "to  a  considerable  degree,  destitute  of  the  advantages  of 
education  but,  possessing  a  strong  mind,  and  a  popular  address, 
was  successful  in  the  administration  of  the  duties  of  his  office. 
His  State  papers  were  usually  attributed  to  his  Secretary  of 
State."814  Whatever  may  have  been  Bond's  motive  in  choosing 
Kane  for  secretary,  there  can  be  little  doubt  about  the  result 
from  a  political  point  of  view.  Kane  was  soon  in  a  position  to 
dominate  the  administration.  Although  "Shadrach  Bond  was 
our  first  State  Governor,"  wrote  a  contemporary,  "I  believe  it 
was  conceded  that  Mr.  Kane  was  chief  ruler  at  the  opening  of 

'"Intelligencer,  October  7,  1818. 

"'Brown,  "Early  History  of  Illinois,"  in  Fergus  Historical  Series,  no.  14:88. 


A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION  303 

our  history."  Party  feeling,  instead  of  subsiding,  increased, 
and  the  governor  found  it  impossible  to  maintain  a  neutral  posi- 
tion. "You  believe  Gov.  Bond  to  be  your  friend — "  wrote  Cook 
to  Edwards  the  following  February,  "I  do  not.  The  nest  which 
float  around  him  are  all  against  you."815 

The  third  day  of  the  session  was  spent  in  electing  the  two 
United  States  senators.  The  candidates  were  Ninian  Edwards, 
Jesse  B.  Thomas,  Leonard  White,  Michael  Jones  of  Kaskaskia, 
Joseph  M.  Street,  and  Robert  Morrison.  The  last-named  was 
a  Pennsylvanian  who  had  lived  in  Kaskaskia  since  1798  and 
who  had  been  active  in  politics  before  the  separation  from 
Indiana.  After  1809  he  was  clerk  of  the  general  or  supreme 
court  at  Kaskaskia.818  Edwards  was  elected  on  the  first  ballot, 
having  received  the  vote  of  thirty-two  of  the  forty  members 
present.  White  came  second  with  seventeen  votes,  Thomas  third 
with  fifteen.  Jones  had  ten  while  Street  and  Morrison  received 
only  three  votes  each  and  were  dropped.  On  the  second  ballot 
White  led  with  sixteen  votes,  Thomas  had  fourteen  and  Jones 
ten.  Then  the  contest  narrowed  down  to  White  and  Thomas 
with  the  advantage  with  Thomas  for  he  could  hope  to  win  over 
more  of  the  Jones  supporters  than  could  White.  On  the  third 
ballot  White  ha  1  eighteen  votes  and  Thomas  nineteen.  On  the 
fourth  ballot  Thomas  received  twenty-one  votes,  barely  the  num- 
ber necessary  to  elect.  The  difference  in  the  attitude  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  legislature  towards  Edwards  and  towards  the  other 
candidates  is  especially  significant,  if  contrasted  with  the  vote 
of  the  same  assembly  in  the  following  February,  when  Edwards, 
who  had  drawn  the  short  term,  was  up  for  reelection.  Then 
Edwards  was  selected  over  a  single  competitor,  Michael  Jones,  by 
the  narrow  margin  of  23  to  19, — a  striking  commentary  on  the 
height  to  which  the  events  of  four  months  had  raised  party 

M!Lippincott,  "Early  Days  in  Madison  County,"  no.  13;  Washburne,  Ed- 
wards Papers,  150. 

""Reynolds,  Pioneer  History,  165 ;  James,  Territorial  Records,  7,  35.  The 
following  account  of  elections  by  the  legislature  is  based  on  Senate  Journal, 

1  general  assembly,  i  session,  17,  18,  28;  House  Journal,  i  general  assembly, 

2  session,  48;  Intelligencer,  October  14,  1818;  Illinois  Emigrant,  October  17, 
1818. 


304  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

feeling.  The  change  was  ascribed  by  Cook,  in  the  letter  already 
quoted,  to  the  influence  wielded  by  Kane. 

On  October  8,  the  legislature  again  met  in  joint  session,  this 
time  for  the  election  of  justices  of  the  supreme  court.  The 
Intelligencer  of  the  preceding  day  contained  an  open  letter  to 
the  general  assembly  from  "A  friend  to  an  able  judiciary"  in 
which  the  importance  of  "the  selection  of  proper  Judges"  was 
emphasized.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  salaries  fixed  by  the 
constitution  were  not  such  as  to  attract  "the  best  talents  of  the 
state"  which  this  writer  thought  "should  be  called  into  the  ser- 
vice." According  to  Reynolds,  "the  material  for  the  bench  was 
not  as  good  as  it  might  be.  Human  nature  is  easier  persuaded  to 
mount  upwards  than  to  remain  on  the  common  level."  The  can- 
didates for  supreme  judge  were  Joseph  Phillips,  secretary  under 
the  territorial  government,  Thomas  Browne,  a  Shawneetown 
lawyer  belonging  to  the  Edwards  party,  and  Henry  S.  Dodge, 
a  Kaskaskia  lawyer  and  real  estate  dealer.  Phillips  received 
thirty-four  of  the  forty-one  votes  cast.  The  assembly  then  pro- 
ceeded to  elect  three  associate  judges.  There  were  nine  candi- 
dates. John  Reynolds,  at  that  time  a  young  lawyer,  gives  this 
account  of  how  he  happened  to  become  one  of  them :  "At  the 
time  of  the  session  of  the  first  legislature  I  resided  in  Cahokia, 
and  had  not  the  least  intention  to  visit  the  seat  of  Government 
at  all.  I  cared  very  little  who  was  elected  to  any  office — one 
thing  was  certain,  I  courted  nothing  myself.  My  friends  urged 
me  to  visit,  with  them,  the  General  Assembly  in  session  at  Kas- 
kaskia, and  I  did  so.  When  we  reached  the  legislature,  there  was 
great  excitement  and  turmoil  in  relation  to  the  election  of  officers 
by  the  General  Assembly.  I  had  not  been  in  Kaskaskia  only  a 
few  days,  when  it  was  urged  on  me  to  know  if  I  would  accept 
of  a  judgeship,  if  I  was  elected.  This  broke  in  on  me  like  a 
clap  of  thunder.  I  was  in  truth  persuaded  to  become  a  candi- 
date for  the  office.  I  had  a  great  many  personal  friends  both 
in  and  out  of  the  legislature  who  urged  me  much  to  consent  to 
offer." 

The  other  candidates  were  Thomas  C.  Browne;  William 
P.  Foster,  a  man  "of  winning,  polished  manners"  who  had  been 


A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION  305 

in  the  state  about  two  months;317  Henry  S.  Dodge;  William 
Wilson,  clerk  and  recorder  of  Jackson  county;  C.  R.  Matheny, 
the  antislavery  advocate  of  the  last  territorial  legislature,  and 
circuit  attorney  of  the  first  district ;  Joseph  Kitchell,  senator  from 
Crawford  county;  John  Warnock,  whom  Edwards  had  appointed 
in  June  as  judge  of  the  western  circuit  in  place  of  Cook;  and  J. 
W.  Whitney,  of  whom  nothing  is  known  except  that  he  lived 
in  St.  Clair  county.  Browne  and  Foster  were  elected  on  the 
first  ballot,  Reynolds  on  the  third.  The  choice  of  Foster  proved 
an  unfortunate  one.  The  following  May,  A.  F.  Hubbard  wrote 
to  Kane,  "I  have  just  been  in  the  upper  Country  of  Fosters  Cir- 
cuit [White,  Edwards,  and  Crawford  counties].  He  did  not 
hold  any  Court.  The  people  are  much  enranged  [sic]  at  him  in- 
deed and  every  man  all  most  has  made  it  his  own  case  and  have 
joined  in  complaint.  I  saw  Judge  Foster  in  Vincennes  he  told  me 
the  water  was  too  high  that  he  was  too  unwell  to  get  to  Palestine 
on  time,  and  that  his  Son  was  to  unwell  to  stay  from  him  till 
after  Edwards  Court  [?]."  This  confirms  what  Ford  wrote  of 
him :  "he  was  no  lawyer,  never  having  either  studied  or  practiced 
law ;  but  ....  withal  a  very  gentlemanly  swindler  ....  He 
was  believed  to  be  a  clever  fellow,  in  the  American  sense  of  the 
phrase,  and  a  good-hearted  soul.  He  was  assigned  to  hold  courts 
in  the  circuit  on  the  Wabash ;  but  being  fearful  of  exposing  his 
utter  incompetency,  he  never  went  near  any  of  them.  In  the 
course  of  one  year  he  resigned  his  high  office,  but  took  care  first 
to  pocket  his  salary,  and  then  removed  out  of  the  State."818 

On  the  following  day,  October  9,  the  general  assembly  com- 
pleted the  elections  by  choosing  Daniel  P.  Cook,  attorney-general ; 
E.  C.  Berry,  auditor;  John  Thomas,  treasurer,  and  Blackwell 
and  Berry,  public  printers.  With  the  exception  of  Cook,  it  was 
but  the  reappointment  of  territorial  officers  and  in  no  case  were 
there  more  than  five  votes  cast  against  the  successful  candidate. 

mReyno1ds,  My  Own  Times,  212;  Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  29.  Ford 
states  that  he  had  been  in  Illinois  about  two  weeks  but  he  registered  a  slave 
in  Randolph  county  on  August  14,  1818. 

t*"Chicago  Historical  Society  manuscripts,  52:185;  Ford,  History  of  Illi- 
nois, 29. 


306  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

When,  the  elections  over,  the  general  assembly  turned  to  law- 
making,  there  appeared  to  be  some  doubt  as  to  its  power  to  legis- 
late before  congress  had  ratified  the  constitution.  Was  Illinois 
a  state?  The  enabling  act  had  conferred  the  power  "to  form  a 
constitution  and  State  government;"  the  people,  through  their 
representatives  in  the  convention  had  adopted  a  constitution ;  and 
by  the  election  and  installation  of  officers  a  state  government  had 
been  formed.  Congress,  however,  had  not  yet  accepted  the 
constitution  and  admitted  the  state  to  the  union.  There  is  every 
indication  that,  when  the  legislature  assembled,  an  extensive 
program  of  legislation  was  contemplated.  The  governor's  mes- 
sage recommended  a  thorough  revision  of  the  territorial  code 
and  the  enactment  of  laws  relating  to  education,  the  salines,  the 
courts,  and  the  militia.  The  house  appointed  committees  on 
military  affairs  and  on  schools,  both  of  which  were  directed  to  re- 
port "by  bill."  On  October  9,  however,  the  same  day  the  elections 
were  completed,  the  senate  adopted  a  resolution  "that  a  commit- 
tee of  two  be  appointed  by  the  senate  to  confer  with  such  com- 
mittee as  may  be  appointed  by  the  house  of  representatives, 
to  enquire  into  the  expediency  of  an  adjournment  of  the  gen- 
eral assembly  until  a  time  sufficient  for  information  to  be  re- 
ceived of  the  ratification  of  the  constitution  by  the  congress  of 
the  United  States;  and  if  an  adjournment  is  expedient,  to  en- 
quire what  particular  important  business  is  necessary  for  the 
general  assembly  to  provide  for  before  such  an  adjournment." 
In  this  resolution  the  house  concurred  after  changing  .it  to  direct 
the  committees  to  confer  with  the  governor  on  the  subject,  an 
amendment  which  was  accepted  by  the  senate. 

On  the  following  day  a  report  of  "the  committee  appointed 
to  confer  with  the  governor  on  the  expediency  of  an  adjourn- 
ment" was  adopted  by  the  house  in  the  form  of  a  resolution 
that  the  general  assembly  "will  not,  at  this  present  session,  pro- 
ceed to  the  enaction  of  any  laws  of  a  public  or  private  nature. — 
but  it  being  in  the  opinion  of  this  legislature,  necessary  that  a 
special  meeting  thereof  ought  to  be  held  as  soon  as  possible 
after  this  state  has  been  regularly  admitted  into  the  union. 

"Be  it  therefore,  and  it  is  further  resolved,  that  the  governor 


ACHSAH  BOND,  WIFE  OF  SHADRACH  BOND 

[From  original  painting  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 


A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION  307 

of  the  state  be,  and  he  is  hereby  requested,  as  soon  as  he  shall 
ascertain  that  this  state  has  been  so  admitted  into  the  union,  to 
issue  his  proclamation  for  calling  a  special  meeting  of  the  general 
assembly  of  the  state,  at  a  convenient  time  thereafter." 

This  resolution  was  at  once  sent  in  a  message  to  the  senate 
which  amended  it  by  inserting  after  the  word  "nature"  the 
words  "except  such  as  may  be  recommended  by  the  joint  com- 
mittee appointed  to  confer  with  the  governor."  The  house  ac- 
cepted the  amendment.  Later  in  the  day,  however,  when  the 
joint  committee  presented  its  second  report,  a  majority  in  both 
houses  was  found  to  be  opposed  to  any  legislation  whatever. 
The  report  in  question  recommended  the  enactment  of  a  law  "to 
organize  the  supreme  court"  but  considered  it  "advisable  to  fix 
the  first  terms  of  the  courts  at  a  period  so  far  distant  as  to  give 
time  for  the  ratification  of  the  constitution  to  be  made  known." 
A  law  to  continue  in  force  the  territorial  laws  and  another  "to 
authorize  the  secretary  of  this  state  to  receive  into  his  posses- 
sion the  books,  papers  and  records  appertaining  to  the  office 
of  the  late  secretary  of  the  Illinois  territory"  were  also  consid- 
ered necessary.  The  senate  refused  to  concur  in  this  report,  by 
a  vote  of  six  to  eight,  while  in  the  house  it  was  laid  on  the  table. 
On  Monday,  October  12,  the  house  adopted  by  a  vote  of  six- 
teen to  ten  a  resolution  for  immediate  adjournment  until  the 
first  Monday  in  January,  1819.  Two  unsuccessful  attempts 
were  made  the  next  day  to  take  the  report  of  the  joint  com- 
mittee from  the  table,  but  the  senate  adopted  the  resolution  for 
adjournment  after  amending  it  by  striking  out  the  date  for 
reassembling.  The  house  concurred  in  the  amendment  and  on 
Tuesday,  October  13,  at  4  p.  m.  the  first  general  assembly  stood 
adjourned  to  await  the  call  of  the  governor. 

While  there  seems  to  have  been  little  or  no  opposition  to  post- 
poning the  program  of  general  legislation  to  a  later  session, 
there  was  clearly  a  difference  of  opinion  among  the  members  of 
the  general  assembly  as  to  the  advisability  of  enacting  the  special 
laws  thought  necessary  by  the  joint  committee.  A  large  minority 
in  both  houses  appears  to  have  favored  such  legislation  but  the 
general  assembly  adjourned  without  enacting  a  single  law.  This 
whole  proceeding  is  probably  to  be  explained  by  the  existence 


308  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

of  a  fear  that  congress  might  not  consider  the  constitution  with 
its  article  on  slavery  in  accord  with  the  ordinance  and  the  en- 
abling act  and  might  therefore  refuse  to  admit  the  state  to  the 
union ;  there  seems  to  have  been  no  serious  doubts  as  to  the  legal- 
ity of  passing  laws  before  congress  acted,  if  only  its  action 
should  prove  to  be  favorable.819 

Although  the  general  assembly  placed  no  laws  upon  the  statute 
books  at  this  first  session  it  did  transact  some  other  business  of 
importance  besides  the  election  of  officers.  Of  special  interest 
is  the  action  concerning  the  seat  of  government.  The  opponents 
of  the  plan  adopted  by  the  convention  had  by  no  means  given 
up  hope.  The  proprietors  of  Carlyle  declared  in  their  advertise- 
ment which  appeared  in  the  Intelligencer  during  September  that 
they  felt  "assured  notwithstanding  the  late  decision  of  the  Con- 
vention, that  so  soon  as  the  lower  counties  can  reconcile  it  to 
themselves  to  part  with  the  legislature  from  the  town  of  Kaskas- 
kia,  the  seat  of  government  will  be  fixed  at  this  place,  they 
having  been  creditably  informed  that  there  is  no  place  above, 
that  has  the  advantage  of  navigation,  and  a  site  sufficiently 
eligible  for  a  town;  for  in  every  instance  where  a  bluff  puts  in, 
an  extensive  bottom  is  opposite."  Just  across  the  Kaskaskia 
from  the  site  of  Carlyle,  William  and  Robert  Morrison  had  laid 
out  on  paper  the  town  of  Donaldson  and  in  an  advertisement 
dated  October  3,  1818,  they  declared:  "The  site  is  high,  dry 
and  commanding,  and  from  its  central  position  to  the  popula- 
tion, and  its  manifest  advantages,  holds  out  as  fair  a  promise 
of  its  becoming  the  future  capital  of  the  state,  as  any  'other  that 
can  be  mentioned."820 

The  legislature,  however,  obeyed  the  instructions  of  the  con- 
vention and  drew  up  a  petition  asking  congress  "to  grant  and 

give  gratuitously  to  this  state  the  said  four  sections 

The  said  General  Assembly  do  further  present;  that  all  the 
Land  near  the  Above  four  Sections  of  Land  belong  to  the  United 

"'Churchill,  "Annotations,"  no.  7.  The  foregoing  account  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  legislature  is  based  on  the  Senate  Journal,  I  general  assembly,  I 
session,  23,  25,  29,  31,  35,  39, 40, 41 ;  House  Journal,  I  general  assembly,  i  ses- 
sion, 7-10, 21,  23",  25-28, 32-36;  Intelligencer,  October  14,21,  1818. 

""Intelligencer,  September  9,  October  14,  1818. 


A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION  309 

States,  And  that  by  establishing  a  seat  of  Government  on  the 
Land  so  granted  it  would  enhance  the  Value  of  the  Adjoining 
Unsold  Lands  of  the  United  States — that  the  United  States 
would  not  be  injured  by  such  donation ;  but  should  the  congress 
of  the  United  States  be  of  a  contrary  Opinion  from  the  General 
Assembly  of  this  state,  in  making  the  Above  donation:  the 
said  General  Assembly  do  petition  the  congress  of  the  United 
States,  to  give  to  this  state  the  preemption  in  the  purchase  at 
two  dollars  per  Acre  of  the  said  four  sections  of  Land."  From 
the  phraseology  of  the  petition,  it  would  seem  that  it  repre- 
sented not  merely  a  formal  compliance  with  the  directions  of 
the  convention  but  also  the  real  wishes  of  the  legislature.821 

The  petition  was  presented  to  the  house  of  representatives  in 
Washington  December  7,  1818  and  was  referred  to  the  com- 
mittee on  public  lands.  Two  days  later  a  remonstrance  counter 
to  this  petition  was  received  and  referred  to  the  same  committee. 
The  document  bore  the  signatures  of  fifty-three  "inhabitants  of 
the  state  of  Illinois"  and  protested  against  the  granting  of  the 
petition  on  the  ground  that  "the  location  of  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment upon  the  Kaskaskia  river,  was  not  the  act  of  a  majority 
of  the  People."  In  the  first  place,  it  was  maintained,  "the  mem- 
bers of  the  Convention  were  apportioned  among  the  several  coun- 
ties, without  any  regard  to  the  actual  population  of  the  same" 
with  the  result  that  the  six  members  from  Madison  and  St. 
Clair  represented  a  larger  population  than  fourteen  members 
from  seven  other  counties.  Secondly,  the  provisions  for  fixing 
the  seat  of  government  "passed  the  Convention  by  the  votes  of 
only  sixteen  members  out  of  the  thirty-three  members  elected — 
one  member  having  deceased,  and  another  refusing  to  vote." 
Especial  emphasis  was  laid  upon  the  fact  that  should  the  petition 
be  granted  the  location  of  the  capital  could  not  be  changed  for 
twenty  years,  except  by  the  "intricate,  expensive,  and  inconven- 
ient" process  of  amending  the  constitution.  "By  rejecting  the 
said  petition"  it  was  asserted,  "your  honorable  body  will  leave 
in  the  hands  of  the  people  of  this  state  a  power  of  which  they 

^Intelligencer,  October  21,  1818;  original  petition  in  House  Files,  De- 
cember 7,  1818. 


310  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

never  ought  to  be  divested — that  of  locating  their  seat  of  gov- 
ernment where  it  shall  be  most  convenient  to  them,  and  of  re- 
moving it,  when  the  public  interests  shall  require  its  removal." 
A  majority  of  the  signers  of  this  remonstrance  were  residents 
or  owners  of  lots  in  the  town  of  Upper  Alton,  a  fact  which 
raises  a  suspicion  that  that  place  also  was  in  the  race  for  the 
capital. 

When  the  general  assembly  came  together  for  its  second  ses- 
sion in  January,  1819,  congress  had  not  acted  on  the  petition  for 
a  land  grant  for  the  capital.  On  February  25  Senator  Thomas 
introduced  a  bill  for  the  grant  and  just  before  the  close  of  the 
session  of  congress  it  passed  both  houses,  receiving  the  approval 
of  the  president  on  March  3.  News  of  this  action  was  several 
weeks  in  reaching  Illinois,  however,  and  some  of  the  members 
of  the  state  senate  were  becoming  impatient.  On  March  16  they 
passed,  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  lieutenant  governor,  a  resolu- 
tion to  receive  proposals  for  gifts  to  the  state  of  land  and  money 
in  return  for  the  location  of  the  capital  "on  the  Kaskaskia  river, 
at  some  point  at  or  above  Carlyle."  The  house  refused  to  con- 
sider the  resolution  before  hearing  of  the  action  of  congress, 
and  the  receipt  of  information  from  Washington  put  an  end  to 
the  fight.  An  act  for  the  location  of  the  grant  and  the  removal 
of  the  capital  thereto  passed  both  houses  and  was  approved  by 
the  governor  on  March  30,  1819. 

Another  petition  to  congress  drawn  up  by  the  general  assem- 
bly at  its  first  session  urged  certain  extensions  in  the  right  of 
preemption.  A  resolution  further  instructed  the  Illinois  senators 
to  endeavor  to  procure  the  passage  of  laws  establishing  the  office 
of  surveyor  of  the  public  lands  in  the  state  and  authorizing  the 
sale  of  land  in  eighty  acre  lots.  On  the  last  day  of  the  session 
reports  were  received  from  the  territorial  auditor  and  treasurer 
which  show  the  financial  status  of  the  state  of  Illinois  at  the 
beginning  of  its  career.  In  his  message  the  governor  announced 
that  "the  treasury  will  be  found  in  a  state  of  present  embarrass- 
ment," and  the  house  refused  to  consider  a  report  "from  the 
committee  to  procure  stationary  ....  till  a  committee  of 
ways  and  means  be  appointed  to  enquire  into  the  state  of  the 
finances."  The  treasurer's  report  showed  that  from  December 


A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION  311 

2,  1817  to  October  i,  1818  the  receipts  were  $3,979.72,  the  ex- 
penditures $4,039.25,  leaving  a  deficit  of  $59.53.  The  auditor 
reported  that  the  income  expected  up  to  December  from  various 
sources  amounted  to  $8,771.20,  from  which  were  to  be  paid  out- 
standing warrants  for  $7,588.  This  would  leave  a  possible 
$183.20  with  which  to  meet  the  deficit  and  start  the  new  gov- 
ernment. That  an  important  source  of  revenue  would  be  avail- 
able when  the  state  was  admitted,  however,  is  indicated  in  a 
report  presented  to  the  house  on  October  10  from  a  joint  com- 
mittee appointed  to  confer  with  the  lessees  of  the  salines.  From 
this  it  appears  that  the  lessees  of  the  Ohio  saline  were  willing  to 
pay  the  state  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year  if  allowed  to  sell  salt  at 
a  dollar  and  fifty  cents  a  bushel,  and  eight  thousand,  if  the  max- 
imum price  were  fixed  at  a  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents.  The 
committee  favored  the  latter  proposition  but  no  action  was  taken 
on  the  report.322 

Shortly  after  the  convention  adjourned,  the  constitution  was 
printed  at  Kaskaskia,  and  on  September  n,  1818,  Greenup,  the 
secretary  forwarded  a  copy  to  Henry  Clay,  speaker  of  the  na- 
tional house  of  representatives.  Congress  met  on  November  16, 
more  than  a  month  after  the  adjournment  of  the  first  legislative 
session,  and  on  the  first  day  Speaker  Clay  laid  the  Illinois  con- 
stitution before  the  house,  where  it  was  tabled.  Three  days  later 
McLean  appeared  in  the  house  and  asked  to  be  sworn  in,  but  the 
speaker,  in  doubt  about  "the  propriety  of  administering  the  oath 
to  him,  in  consequence  of  Congress  not  having  concluded  the  act 
of  admission,"  submitted  the  question  to  the  house.  Poindexter 
of  Mississippi  thought  it  necessary  "to  see,  first,  whether  the 
requisitions  of  the  act  of  last  session  were  complied  with;  and, 

'"House  Journal,  I  general  assembly,  I  session,  7,  14,  32-36;  Intelligencer, 
October  14,  21,  1818.  That  one  of  the  counties  at  least  was  in  an  embarrassed 
financial  condition,  also,  is  seen  from  a  note  which  the  census  enumerator 
for  Johnson  county  appended  to  his  returns.  After  showing  that  the  annual 
revenue  from  taxes  on  taverns,  slaves,  and  horses,  would  be  $138.50,  for 
which  must  be  deducted  $80.00  for  sheriff's  and  clerk's  fees,  he  continued : 
"Johnson  County  oweth  at  present  $2000 — which  at  an  Average  will  take 
some  more  than  thirty-six  years  to  Discharge  the  old  Debt — Poor  Little  John- 
son But  is  not  yet  on  the  Parish — the  territorial  tax  in  Johnson  County 
this  year  is  near  about  48  or  50  Dollars  from  the  Lands  Returned  to  me  for 
tax  as  will  be  seen  more  correct  when  I  Draw  off  ray  Book  in  alpabetacle 
[sic]  order." 


312  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

secondly,  whether  the  form  of  government  established  was  re- 
publican," while  Pitkin  of  Connecticut  insisted  that  the  presence 
in  the  territory  of  the  population  required  by  the  enabling  act 
should  first  "be  officially  established,  ....  and  the  resolution 
of  admission  passed."  Harrison  of  Ohio  claimed  that  there  was 
precedent  for  immediate  admission,  but  "it  was  decided  appar- 
ently by  a  large  majority  that  the  SPEAKER  should  not  at  this 
time  administer  the  oath  of  office."  This  event  probably  has- 
tened matters,  however,  for  the  constitution  was  at  once  referred 
to  a  select  committee  consisting  of  Anderson  of  Kentucky,  Poin- 
dexter  of  Mississippi,  and  Hendricks  of  Indiana,  all  western 
men. 

On  the  following  day,  November  20,  the  committee  reported  a 
resolution  for  the  admission  of  Illinois  "on  an  equal  footing  with 
the  original  States."  The  preamble  declared  the  constitution 
and  state  government  framed  by  the  convention  to  be  republican 
and  "in  conformity  to  the  principles  of  the  articles  of  compact" 
of  the  Ordinance  of  1787.  After  the  resolution  had  been  read 
twice,  the  question  of  population  was  again  raised,  this  time  by 
Spencer  of  New  York,  who  wished  to  know  if  any  documentary 
evidence  on  the  subject  had  been  transmitted.  Anderson  replied 
for  the  committee  that  the  preamble  of  the  constitution  stated 
"that  the  requisitions  of  the  act  of  Congress  had  been  complied 
with  ....  the  committee,"  he  said,  "had  considered  that  evi- 
dence sufficient;  and  he  had,  in  addition,  himself  seen,  in  the 
newspapers,  evidence  sufficient  to  satisfy  him  of  the  fact,  that 
the  population  did  amount  to  forty  thousand  souls,  the  number 
required."  The  resolution  "was  then  ordered  to  be  engrossed 
for  a  third  reading."323 

The  principal  debate  took  place  in  the  house  on  November  23 
when  the  resolution  came  up  for  final  action.  As  a  prelude  to 
the  controversy  over  the  admission  of  Missouri,  which  opened  a 
few  months  later,  this  debate  and  the  vote  which  followed  have 
an  importance  even  greater  for  national  history  than  for  the 

m Annals  of  Congress,  15  congress,  2  session,  1 :2g6-2g8.  The  resolution 
is  printed  in  the  appendix  to  the  Annals  of  Congress,  15  congress,  2  session, 
2 12548.  Senator  Edwards  had  asked  Governor  Bond  for  a  statement  of 
the  population  as  returned  to  the  convention.  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers, 


PIERRE  MENARD 

(From  original  painting  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 


A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION  313 

history  of  Illinois  —  an  importance  which  has  not,  as  a  rule,  been 
recognized  by  historians. 

The  discussion  was  opened  by  Tallmadge  of  New  York,  the 
same  man  who  was  to  lead  the  fight  against  the  admission  of 
Missouri  with  a  constitution  permitting  slavery.     Although  he 
was  inclined  to  demand  further  evidence  that  Illinois  had  the 
requisite  population,  he  preferred  to  rest  his  opposition  upon  an- 
other point.     "The  principle  of  slavery,  if  not  adopted  in  the 
constitution,  was  at  least  not  sufficiently  prohibited,"     After 
citing  the  provision  against  slavery  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787, 
he  declared  that:   "The  sixth  article  of  the  constitution  of  the 
new  State  of  Illinois,  in  each  of  its  three  sections  ....  con- 
travened this  stipulation,  either  in  the  letter  or  the  spirit.    These 
sections  he  separately  examined,  as  to  their  construction  and 
bearing,  and  felt  himself  constrained  to  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  they  embraced  a  complete  recognition  of  existing  slavery,  if 
not  provisions  for  its  future  introduction  and  toleration;  partic- 
ularly in  the  passage  wherein  they  permit  the  hiring  of  slaves, 
the  property  of  non-residents,  for  any  number  of  years  consecu- 
tively.    If  Congress  would  observe  in  good  faith  the  terms  of 
the  convention,  he  said,  they  were  bound,  under  this  circum- 
stance, to  reject  the  constitution  of  Illinois,  or  at  least  this  fea- 
ture of  it."    He  had  no  desire,  the  speaker  said,  "to  invade  the 
rights  of  the  slaveholding  States,  or  to  assail  their  prerogatives, 
he  believed  they  were  equally  sensible  with  him  of  the  evils  of 
slavery,  and  did  what  they  could  to  control  and  regulate  them." 
After  referring  to  the  excellent  provisions  of  the  Indiana  consti- 
tution relative  to  slavery,  he  declared  :82*    "Our  interest  and  our 
honor  ....  calls  on  us  rigidly  to  insist  on  the  observance  of 
good  faith  under  the  article  of  the  ordinance  I  have  referred  to, 
so  far  as  that  no  involuntary  service  be  permitted  to  be  recog- 
nised in  the  constitution  of  any  State  to  be  formed  out  of  that 
territory." 

In  replying  to  Tallmadge,  Poindexter  (whether  deliberately 
or  not  it  is  impossible  to  say)  misrepresented  the  facts.  After 
expressing  his  concurrence  in  the  "solicitude  to  expel  from  our 


debate  is  reported  in  the  Annals  of  Congress,  15  congress,  2  ses- 
sion. i  :  305-3  1  1.    It  is  summarized  in  the  Intelligencer,  December  23,  1818. 


314  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

country,  whenever  practicable,  anything  like  slavery,"  he  de- 
clared, "that  the  article  on  the  subject  of  slaves  was  almost  lit- 
erally copied  from  the  constitution  of  Ohio  into  that  of  Illinois. 
The  third  section  of  the  article  in  question,  in  the  latter,  was  the 
only  variation,  and  the  necessity  of  that  additional  provision 
would  be  obvious  to  any  gentleman  who  would  examine  and 
reflect  upon  the  subject.  By  an  antecedent  law  of  the  Territorial 
government,  all  persons,  slaves  or  under  indenture,  in  the  Terri- 
tory, were  required  to  be  registered,  as  the  only  way  in  which 
they  could  be  discriminated  from  fugitives,  &c.  The  constitu- 
tion directs  that  their  children  also  shall  be  registered,  that  they 
may  be  secure  of  enjoying  their  freedom,  when  by  the  constitu- 
tion they  become  entitled.  From  their  color,  (being  prima  facie 
slaves  in  other  States,)  was  it  not  more  secure  to  the  freedom  of 
the  people  of  color,  that  their  births,  parentage,  &c.,  should  be 
recorded  in  the  new  State,  than  otherwise  ?  So  far  from  consti- 
tuting an  objection  to  it,  Mr.  P.  said,  he  considered  this  a  valu- 
able part  of  the  constitution  of  Illinois."  The  speaker  also  main- 
tained, with  more  truth,  that  "it  would  be  found  impracticable, 
after  admitting  the  independence  of  a  State,  to  prevent  it  from 
framing  or  shaping  its  constitution  as  it  thought  proper.  As  to 
a  constitution  like  that  of  Indiana,  prohibiting  the  introduction 
of  an  amendment  to  it,  of  whatever  nature,  if  the  people  were 
to  form  a  convention  to-morrow,  that  provision  would  be  of  no 
force:  the  whole  power  would  be  with  the  people,  whom,  in 
their  sovereign  capacity,  no  provision  of  that  nature  can  con- 
trol. Nor  would  Congress  prevent  them." 

Anderson,  another  member  of  the  committee,  not  only  agreed 
with  Poindexter,  but  maintained  that  there  was  nothing  binding 
about  the  so-called  articles  of  compact  in  the  ordinance,  since 
"the  people  of  the  Northwestern  Territory"  were  not  "repre- 
sented at  all,  nor  consulted  on  the  occasion."  In  his  opinion 
"there  was  nothing  unconstitutional,  in  any  view,  in  Congress 
accepting  what  the  people  of  Illinois  have  done,  if  they  thought 
proper;  since  the  consent  of  the  two  contracting  parties  (sup- 
posing the  ordinance  to  be  a  compact)  would  thus  be  given." 
"Are  we,"  asked  Tallmadge  in  reply,  "to  be  drawn  into  a  dis- 


A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION  315 

cussion  of  slavery,  its  merits  and  demerits,  on  abstract  prin- 
ciples? He  would  not  enter  into  such  a  discussion;  but  must 
persist  in  stating  it  as  his  opinion,  that  the  interest,  honor,  and 
faith  of  the  nation,  required  it  scrupulously  to  guard  against 
slavery's  passing  into  a  territory  where  they  have  power  to  pre- 
vent its  entrance."  Nor  would  he  admit  that  a  state  could 
change  its  constitution  at  will.  He  believed  that  it  would  "cease, 
by  the  very  act,  to  be  a  component  part  of  the  Union"  should  it 
"violate  the  condition  on  which  it  was  admitted." 

William  Henry  Harrison  "as  a  Representative  of  Ohio"  pro- 
tested against  this  doctrine.  The  "people  of  that  State,"  he  said, 
"were  fully  aware  of  their  privileges,  and  would  never  come  to 
this  House,  or  to  the  State  of  New  York,  for  permission  so  to 
alter  their  constitution  as  to  admit  the  introduction  of  slavery, 
the  object  of  the  gentleman's  abhorrence,  as,  said  Mr.  H.,  it  is 
of  mine.  They  had  entered  into  no  compact  which  had  shorn 
the  people  of  their  sovereign  authority  ....  he  sincerely 
wished  that  Illinois  had  either  emancipated  its  slaves,  or  followed 
the  example  of  Indiana"  and  left  "the  question  relating  to  this 
description  of  property  ....  for  the  decision  of  the  courts 
of  justice  ....  In  regard  to  the  supposed  compact,  how- 
ever, and  its  efficacy,  Mr.  H.  said,  he  had  always  considered  it  a 
dead  letter." 

The  yeas  and  nays  having  been  requested  by  Livermore  of 
New  Hampshire,  who  was  opposed  to  the  resolution,  the  vote 
was  taken  and  the  resolution  carried  117  to  34.  The  followers 
of  Tallmadge  in  this  vote  were  few  as  compared  to  those  who 
supported  him  in  the  Missouri  contest  three  months  later,  due 
probably  to  the  fact  that  the  issue  was  not  so  clear.  It  is  signifi- 
cant, however,  that  only  one  of  the  thirty-four,  Reed  of  Mary- 
land, voted  against  the  Tallmadge  amendment  to  the  enabling 
act  for  Missouri.  With  the  exception  of  Reed,  all  of  those  who 
opposed  the  Illinois  resolution  were  from  the  five  New  England 
states,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania.  They  in- 
cluded a  majority  of  the  representatives  from  New  England. 
Clearly  the  opposition  to  the  admission  of  Illinois  was  due  to  the 
provisions  relative  to  slavery  in  the  constitution  and  clearly,  also, 


316  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

the  extension  of  slavery  was  already  a  sectional  issue  in  the 
United  States  in  November,  1818. 

The  resolution  for  the  admission  of  Illinois  was  received  in 
the  senate  on  November  25  and  was  referred  to  the  committee 
on  public  lands.  The  following  day  the  committee  "reported  the 
same  without  amendment."  It  was  considered  in  committee  of 
the  whole  on  November  28  and  30,  but  if  there  was  any  debate, 
it  was  not  reported.  On  December  I  the  resolution  passed  the 
senate  without  a  division,  and  on  the  third  it  received  the  ap- 
proval of  the  president.  Illinois  was  now  a  state  in  the  union. 
The  next  day  "NINIAN  EDWARDS  and  JESSE  B.  THOMAS,  re- 
spectively appointed  Senators  by  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of 

Illinois took  their  seats  in  the  Senate."  In  the  house, 

"MR.  JOHN  MCLEAN  .  .  .  .took  his  seat  as  the  Represent- 
ative of  the  State  of  Illinois."325 

By  December  16,  news  of  the  action  taken  in  the  house  had 
been  received  in  Illinois.  That  news  allayed  any  fear  there  had 
been  that  the  state  might  not  be  admitted.  In  announcing  it,  the 
editors  of  the  Intelligencer  commented :  "As  the  senate  will  act 
speedily  on  this  subject,  we  may  expect  early  information  of  our 
complete  emancipation  from  territorial  government."  That  in- 
formation arrived  in  time  for  the  governor  to  issue  on  December 
22,  the  following  proclamation: 

"Whereas  information  has  been  received  that  by  a  resolution 
of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States 
of  America  in  congress  Assembled  the  State  of  Illinois  has  been 
declared  to  be  one  of  the  United  States  of  America  and  has  been 
admitted  into  the  Union  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  original 
States  in  all  respects  whatever 

"Therefore  I  Shadrach  Bond  Governor  of  the  said  State,  by 
virtue  of  the  power  vested  in  me  by  the  constitution  do  appoint 
the  third  monday  in  the  month  of  January  next  for  a  meeting  of 
the  General  Assembly  of  said  state  and  I  do  hereby  require  all 

'"'Annals  of  Congress,  15  congress,  2  session,  1 123,  26,  31,  32,  38,  342.  The 
proclamation  was  printed  in  the  Intelligencer,  December  23,  1818.  It  is  here 
copied  from  the  manuscript  "Executive  Register"  in  the  secretary  of  state's 
office. 


A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION  317 

the  members  of  each  branch  thereof  to  convene  on  said  day  at 
Kaskaskia  the  seat  of  Government. 

"In  testimony  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  pri- 
vate seal  (there  being  no  State  seal  provided)  this  twenty  second 
day  of  December  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  eighteen  and  of  the  Independence  of  the  United 
States  of  America  the  forty-third." 


APPENDIX 


Report  to 
Convention 

\ 

00    O\   co   M    ON   Q\  tx   co  t"x   ON   ^t_Ov   ON   &\  01   -" 
O\fO^J*OO    "^   «-<   VO    O    HH\O    f^T~co   O    »-H    co 

cooo   M    woovo   t^foioo    ONO   txoooo 

»*    ft    vl    M    *Q  *H           \OMO<C^*OC4MCO 

IO 

Combined 
Total  in 
Schedules 

Tj"  \O    OQ  OO     M     d    OQ   "O    H     ^J*   *O   H     *\|  00     Ov 
CO    O\    ^    04     O\   fO  ^O    ^O   **O   CX           ^     ^J*  CO     *O 

MO)               *H      CO    W               ^t*    **(      ^1               CVj    C^      H-I      f\rj 

1 

•    txCO       -Mtx-       •       .       .10.       .    M     . 

K, 

Schedules 

§ 

w 

i 

Xi 

W 

Slaves 

u 

•  oo    -o\o    «    •    -    «o    •    -o    . 

Os 

8 

Free  People 
of  Color 

b 

All  Other 
White 

•  COtX'OOO      «      «      •      «O      •      «OJ 
•O\N       -ION       •       •       «       «N       •       -CO       « 

R* 

a 

u 

Inhabitants 

s' 

s 

Free  White 

H 

i 

Males  of 
Age 

9 

00 

Heads  of 
families 

* 

Report  of 
the  Secre- 
tary in 
June 

ltl:|p|l|||||| 

O 

vS 

Total  in 
Schedules 

§1  :!iPl§i;!i!i 

N 

8 

WJ 

Servants  or 
Slaves 

too      •lOCOONftxHirt"     "t>.r')c*Jr>. 
HI    N      •    HI    HI    Tf  W    tx   1-VO      •    Ov  CO   N    10 

a 

W 
U 

Free  People 
of  Color 

O  CO      «    N    CO   O    HI    TJ-VO    O      .    0   O    ON   HI 

IS.        «      IO  CO                          «O                            •      N                HI      HI 

• 

cv^ 

CV) 

ORIGI] 

All  Other 

White 
Inhabitants 

MHI                           N                           COMHI                <\|0)HIO) 

Ov 

Free  White 
Males  of 
Age 

-Jli?a»«|88:SI«R 

1 

Fleads  of 
Families 

wO\      'txrfOniHi^c^       •OxON^'rN. 
NCO      .HiloO»HitN01CO      •\J-tOO<lO 

"S 

o    • 

. 

1 

B 

o 

:_.          «••:•*: 

•w^g-jrtOtSy     :o,.i5     >W)    • 

CO 

I 

00 

HI 

00 


(318) 


APPENDIX  319 

The  figures  in  the  foregoing  table,  except  where  otherwise  indicated,  are 
the  result  of  a  careful  checking  up  of  extant  schedules.  Most  of  the  com- 
missioners who  attempted  to  foot  up  the  totals  made  errors  of  addition.  The 
census  of  Franklin  county  had  not  been  taken  when  the  secretary  made  his 
report  in  June.  The  enumerator  for  Madison  county  appended  to  his 
schedule  the  following  statements :  .  "I  beg  leave  further  to  state  from  good 
information  that  there  are  at 

Fort  Crawford  680  Souls 

Fort  Armstrong  150  Souls 

Fort  Edwards  70      " 

do.  Clark  80 

Makeing  in  the  whole  5466  Souls  within  the  boundury  of  Madison  County." 
These  980  reputed  inhabitants  are  not  included  in  the  schedule  total  but 
are  included  in  the  secretary's  report  and  presumably  in  the  final  report 
to  the  convention.  The  schedule  for  St.  Clair  county  has  been  burned  in 
part  and  the  figures  given  represent  only  what  remains  intact.  Italics  are 
used  to  indicate  incomplete  totals  due  to  missing  or  incomplete  schedules. 
The  total  of  the  secretary's  report  is  a  correct  addition  of  the  figures  and 
is  ten  less  than  his  total  of  the  same  figures  as  given  in  Intelligencer,  June 
17,  1818.  The  report  to  the  convention  is  printed  in  the  Illinois  State  His- 
torical Society,  Journal,  6:359. 

"JEFFERSON-LEMEN  COMPACT/'  pages  242  et  seq. 

Edward  Coles,  in  1865,  wrote  that  slavery  "formed  a  prominent  topic  in 
the  political  discussions  of  Illinois  previous  to  its  becoming  a  State"  and  "at 
a  very  early  period  in  the  settlement  of  Illinois,  the  question  was  warmly 
agitated  by  zealous  advocates  and  opponents  of  slavery."  Letter  quoted  by 
Lippincott  in  his  "Early  Days  in  Madison  County,"  no.  28. 

The  claim  has  been  made  that  James  Lemen,  a  Virginian,  having  made 
a  secret  compact  with  Jefferson  to  work  for  the  exclusion  of  slavery  in 
Illinois,  came  out  for  that  purpose  in  1786  and  founded  the  settlement  of 
New  Design.  During  the  Indiana  period  he  is  said  to  have  exerted  himself 
to  prevent  the  success  of  the  advocates  of  the  introduction  of  slavery.  From 
1796  on,  Lemen  "was  active  in  the  promotion  of  Baptist  churches  and  a 
Baptist  Association."  In  1808  he  was  licensed  as  a  preacher  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  led  a  movement  which  resulted  in  the  disruption  of  the  asso- 
ciation on  the  slavery  question  and  the  organization  of  "Bethel  Baptist 
Church"  on  a  strict  antislavery  basis.  A  document  purporting  to  be  a  copy 
of  an  account,  written  by  Reverend  John  Mason  Peck  in  1851,  states  that 
the  members  of  this  church  "formed  what  they  called  'The  Illinois  Anti- 
Slavery  League,'  and  it  was  this  body  that  conducted  the  anti-slavery  contest. 
It  always  kept  one  of  its  members  and  several  of  its  friends  in  the  Territorial 
Legislature,  and  five  years  before  the  constitutional  election  in  1818  it  had 
fifty  resident  agents — men  of  like  sympathies — in  the  several  settlements 
throughout  the  territory  quietly  at  work,  and  the  masterly  manner  in  which 
they  did  their  duty  was  shown  by  a  poll  which  they  made  of  the  voters  some 
few  weeks  before  the  election,  which,  on  their  side  only  varied  a  few  votes 
from  the  official  count  after  the  election."  MacNaul,  Jefferson-Letnen  Com- 
pact, 7-25,  36. 

The  authenticity  of  this  document  and  of  all  the  so-called  "Lemen  fam- 
ily notes,"  only  transcripts  of  which  appear  to  be  in  existence,  is  very  doubt- 
ful; and  no  other  evidence  has  been  found  of  the  existence  of  an  "Illinois 
Anti-Slavery  League"  in  the  territorial  period. 

LEMEN  AND  COOK,  page  225 

The  claim  has  been  made  in  a  document  purporting  to  have  been  writ- 
ten by  Reverend  John  Mason  Peck  in  1857,  that  the  plan  was  first  suggested 
by  Reverend  James  Lemen,  Sr.,  reputed  to  have  been  an  influential  champion 
of  freedom  during  the  territorial  period.  It  is  said  that  he  "had  a  govern- 
ment surveyor  make  a  map  showing  the  great  advantages  and  gave  them  to 


320  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

Nathaniel  Pope."  MacNaul,  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact,  37*38,  55.  Until 
more  authentic  evidence  is  presented  the  credit  for  the  amendment  must 
remain  with  Pope.  If  the  slavery  question  was  a  factor  in  the  matter,  it  is 
quite  possible  that  Pope's  nephew,  Daniel  Pope  Cook  may  have  had  a  hand 
in  it.  As  early  as  February  4,  1818,  in  a  communication  over  the  signature 
"A  Republican"  in  the  Intelligencer  he  took  a  strong  antislavery  position 
not  merely  with  reference  to  Illinois,  but  for  the  nation  as  a  whole;  and  in 
the  issue  of  April  I,  he  presented  a  strong  argument  against  the  expediency 
or  legality  of  providing  for  the  toleration  of  slavery  in  the  new  constitution. 
Cook  may  have  conferred  with  Pope  in  Washington  in  February  or  March, 
1818,  for,  on  January  6,  he  announced  his  intention  of  leaving  Kaskaskia  in 
the  course  of  fifteen  or  twenty  days  for  Richmond,  Washington,  Philadelphia, 
and  possibly  New  York.  He  could  not  have  reached  Washington,  however, 
before  the  date  of  Pope's  letter  announcing  his  intention  to  work  for  the 
northern  extension. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

No  attempt  has  been  made  to  make  this  a  complete  bibliography  of  the 
subject  It  is  primarily  a  list  of  works  referred  to  in  the  notes,  and  is 
included  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  the  reader  to  identify  those  works  and 
to  determine  the  editions  used.  • 

MANUSCRIPTS 

American  Fur  Company  Letter  Book,  1816-1820.  Manuscript  at  Mackinac. 
Photostatic  copy  in  Illinois  Historical  Survey. 

Auditor  of  Public  Accounts,  Springfield.    Land  Office  Records. 

Chicago  Historical  Society  manuscripts:  vols.  49,  50,  51,  Edwards  papers; 
vols.  52,  53,  E.  K.  Kane  papers. 

Deed  Record,  A,  in  Pope  County. 

Draper  Manuscripts,  1816-20.  Originals  in  library  of  State  Historical  Society 
of  Wisconsin.  Photostatic  copies  of  documents  used,  in  Illinois  His- 
torical Survey. 

Eddy  Manuscripts,  Shawneetown,  Illinois.  Transcripts  in  Illinois  Historical 
Survey. 

George  Knight  to  Charles  Knight,  June  21,  1818.  Transcript  in  the  Illinois 
Historical  Survey. 

House  Files.  Archives  of  the  United  States  House  of  RepresentativeSj  Wash- 
ington. Photostatic  copies  of  documents  used  in  Illinois  Historical 
Survey. 

Indian  Office  Papers.  Archives  of  the  United  States  Indian  Office,  Wash- 
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Survey. 

Messinger  Manuscripts.     Transcripts  in  Illinois  Historical  Survey. 

Secretary  of  State,  Springfield,  Census  Schedules;  Correspondence;  Executive 
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the  Legislative  Council,  1817-1818;  Miscellaneous  Assembly  Papers. 

United  States  State  Department,  Bureau  of  Indexes  and  Archives,  Miscel- 
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Photostatic  copies  of  documents  used  in  Illinois  Historical  Survey. 

OTHER  SOURCES 

Alvord,  Clarence  W.  (ed.),  Cahokia  Records  (Illinois  State  Historical  Li- 
brary, Collections,  vol.  2.  Springfield,  1907). 

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Alvord,  Clarence  W.  (ed.),  Laws  of  the  Territory  of  Illinois,  1809-1811 
(Illinois  State  Historical  Library,  Bulletin,  i:  no.  2.  Springfield,  1906). 

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Time,  3  volumes  (Chicago,  1884). 

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Babcock,  Rufus  (ed.),  Memoir  of  John  Mason  Peck,  D.  D.  (Philadelphia, 
1864). 

(321) 


322  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

Bailey,  John  R.,  Mackinac,  formerly  Michilimackinac  (Lansing,  1895). 

Bancroft,  Hubert  H.,  History  of  the  Northwest  Coast,  2  volumes  (San  Fran- 
cisco, 1884). 

Biographical  Review  of  Johnson,  Massac,  Pope,  and  Hardin  Counties,  Illinois 
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Birkbeck,  Morris,  Letters  from  Illinois  (Philadelphia,  1818). 

Birkbeck,  Morris,  Notes  on  a  Journey  in  America,  from  the  Coast  of  Vir- 
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Blair,  Emma  H.  (ed.),  The  I.idian  Tribes  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley 
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commissioner  to  Canada;  Morrell  Marston,  American  army  officer;  and 
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Boggess,  Arthur,  C,  The  Settlement  of  Illinois,  1778-1830  (Chicago  Historical 
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Brown,  Samuel  R.,  The  Western  Gazetteer;  or  Emigrant's  Directory,  con- 
taining a  geographical  description  of  the  Western  States  and  Territories 
(Auburn,  N.  Y.,  1817). 

Brown,  William  H.,  "Early  History  of  Illinois,"  in  Fergus  Historical  Series, 
no.  14. 

Brown,  William  H.,  "An  Historical  Sketch  of  the  Early  Movement  in  Illinois 
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cago, 1876). 

Buck,  Solon  J.,  Travel  and  Description  1765-1865;  Together  -with  a  List  of 
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Chittenden,  Hiram  M.,  The  American  Fur  Trade  of  the  Far  West.  A  His- 
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Churchill,  George,  "Annotations"  on  Rev.  Thomas  Lippincott's  "Early  Days 
in  Madison  County,"  published  in  the  Alton  Telegraph  in  1865.  Scrap- 
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torical Survey. 

Dana,  Edmund,  Geographical  Sketches  of  the  Western  Country:  designed 
for  Emigrants  and  Settlers:  Being  the  Result  of  Extensive  Researches 
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Darby,  William,  The  Emigrant's  Guide  to  the  Western  and  Southwestern 
States  and  Territories:  comprising  a  Geographical  and  Statistical  De- 
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and  Ohio; — the  Territories  of  Alabama,  Missouri,  Illinois,  and  Michigan 
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Dowrie,  George  W.,  The  Development  of  Banking  in  Illinois,  1817-1863  (Uni- 
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I9I3)- 

Dunn,  Jacob  P.  Jr.,  Indiana,  A  Redemption  from  Slavery  (American  Com- 
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Edwards,  Ninian  W.,  History  of  Illinois,  from  1778  to  1833;  and  Life  and 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY  323 

Edwardsville  Spectator,  1819-1826,  Edwardsville,  Illinois.  Files  in  Library 
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Erwin,  Milo,  History  of  Williamson  County,  Illinois,  from  the  Earliest  Times, 
down  to  the  Present,  1876  (Marion,  Illinois,  1876). 

Fearon,  Henry  B.,  Sketches  of  America.  A  Narrative  of  a  Journey  of  Five 
Thousand  Miles  through  the  Eastern  and  Western  States  of  America 
(London,  1819). 

Flower,  George,  History  of  the  English  Settlement  in  Edwards  County,  Illi- 
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torical Society's  Collection,  vol.  I.  Chicago,  1882). 

Ford,  Thomas,  A  History  of  Illinois,  from  its  Commencement  as  a  State  in 

1818  to  1847  (Chicago,  1854). 

Harris,  Norman  D.,  History  of  Negro  Slavery  in  Illinois  and  of  the  Slavery 
Agitation  in  that  State  (Chicago,  1906). 

Harris,  William  T.,  Remarks  Made  during  a  Tour  through  the  United  States 
of  America  in  the  Years,  1817,  1818,  and  1819  (London,  1821). 

History  of  Gallatin,  Saline,  Hamilton,  Franklin,  and  Williamson  Counties, 
Illinois  (Chicago:  Goodspeed  Publishing  Co.,  1887). 

History  of  Madison  County,  Illinois  (Edwardsville,  Illinois:  W.  R.  Brink  & 
Co.,  1882). 

History  of  Marion  and  Clinton  Counties,  Illinois  (Philadelphia:  Brink,  Mc- 
Donough  &  Co.  1881). 

History  of  St.  Clair  County,  Illinois  (Philadelphia:  Brink,  McDonough  & 
Co.,  1881). 

History  of  Wayne  and  Clay  Counties,  Illinois  (Chicago:  Globe  Publishing 
Co.,  1884). 

Hodge,  Frederick  W.  (ed.),  Hand-book  of  American  Indians  North  of 
Mexico,  2  volumes  (Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  Bulletin,  30.  Wash- 
ington, 1907-1910). 

Hubbard,  Gurdon  S.,  Incidents  and  events  in  the  life  of  Gurdon  Saltonstall 
Hubbard.  Collected  from  Personal  Narrations  and  Other  Sources  and 
Arranged  by  his  Nephew,  Henry  E.  Hamilton  (Chicago,  1888). 

Hubbard,  Gurdon  S.,  The  Autobiography  of  Gurdon  Saltonstall  Hubbard, 
Pa-pa-ma-ta-be  "The  Swift  Walker"  (Chicago,  1911). 

Hurlbut,  Henry  H.,  Chicago  Antiquities:  comprising  original  Items  and  Rela- 
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1881). 

Illinois  Emigrant,  December,  i8i8-September,  1819.  (  Shawneetown,  Illinois) 
[Continued  as  Illinois  Gazette,  1819-1830]  Files  in  Library  of  Congress, 
Washington,  D.  C.  and  American  Antiquarian  Society,  Worcester,  Massa- 
chusetts. Photostatic  copies  in  Illinois  Historical  Survey. 

Illinois,  Bluebook,  1905  (Springfield,  1906);  1913-1914  (Danville,  1914). 

Illinois,  Journal  of  the  Convention,  1818.  The  only  known  copy,  in  the  office 
of  the  secretary  of  state,  Springfield,  contains  pages  3  to  72  inclusive 
only,  the  title-page  and  a  few  pages  at  the  end  having  been  torn  out.  It 
is  reprinted,  with  an  introduction  by  Richard  V.  Carpenter,  in  Illinois 
State  Historical  Society,  Journal,  6 1327-425. 

Illinois,  Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  1818   (Kaskaskia,  1818)  ; 

1819  (Kaskaskia.  1810). 


324  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

Illinois,  Journal  of  the  Senate,  1818  (Kaskaskia,  1818)  ;  1819  (Kaskaskia, 
1819). 

Illinois,  Laws,  1819  (Kaskaskia,  1819)  ;  1820-1821  (Vandalia,  1821). 
Illinois  Gazette,  see  Illinois  Emigrant. 
Illinois  Intelligencer,  see  Western  Intelligencer. 

Illinois  State  Historical  Library,  Collections,  II  volumes  (Springfield,  1903- 
1916). 

Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Journal,  8  volumes  (Springfield,  1908-1916). 

Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1900-1915,  16  volumes  (Illi- 
nois State  Historical  Library,  Publications,  nos.  4,  6-17,  19-21.  Springfield, 
1900-1916). 

Illinois  Territory,  A  Law  Establishing  a  Supreme  Court  and  Documents 
(Kaskaskia,  1814). 

Illinois  Territory,  Laws,  1812  (Russelville,  Kentucky,  1813)  ;  "Pope's  Digest," 
1813-1814,  2  volumes  (Kaskaskia,  1815)  ;  1815-1816  (Kaskaskia,  1816)  ; 
1816-1817  (Kaskaskia,  1817)  ;  1817-1818  (Kaskaskia,  1818).  The  last 
three  are  available  in  page  for  page  reprints  (Springfield,  1898). 

Illustrated  Encyclopedia  and  Atlas  Map  of  Madison  County,  Illinois  (St. 
Louis:  Brink,  McDonough  Co.,  1873). 

Indiana  Historical  Society,  Publications,  5  volumes  (Indianapolis,  1897-1915). 
Indiana  Territory,  Laws,  1805  (Vincennes,  n.  d.)  ;  1807  (Vincennes,  1807). 
Intelligencer,  see  Western  Intelligencer. 

James,  Edmund  J.  (ed.),  The  Territorial  Records  of  Illinois  (Illinois  State 
Historical  Library,  Publications,  no.  3.  Springfield,  1901). 

Kapper,  Charles  J.,  Indian  Affairs,  Laws,  and  Treaties,  2  volumes  (Wash- 
ington, 1904). 

Kinzie,  Mrs.  John  H.,  Wau-Bun,  The  Early  Day  in  the  Northwest  (Phila- 
delphia, 1873). 

Lansden,  John  M.f  A  History  of  the  City  of  Cairo,  Illinois  (Chicago,  1910). 

Leaton,  James,  History  of  Methodism  in  Illinois,  from  1793  to  1832  (Cin- 
cinnati, 1883). 

Lippincott,  Thomas,  "Conflict  of  the  Century,"  published  in  the  Henry  Weekly 
Courier,  1860.  Transcripts  in  Illinois  Historical  Survey. 

Lippincott,  Thomas,  "Early  Days  in  Madison  County,"  published  in  the  Alton 
Telegraph  [i864]-i86s.  Transcripts  in  Illinois  Historical  Survey. 

MacNaul,  Willard  C.,  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact.  The  Relations  of  Thomas 
Jefferson  and  James  Lemen  in  the  Exclusion  of  Slavery  from  Illinois  and 
the  Northwest  Territory  with  Related  Documents,  1781-1818  (Chicago, 


Mcllwain,  Charles  H.  (ed.),  An  Abridgment  of  the  Indian  Affairs  Contained 
in  four  folio  volumes  transacted  in  the  Colony  of  New  York  from  the 
year  1678  to  the  year  1756.  By  Peter  Wraxall  (Cambridge,  1915). 

Mason,  Edward  G.  (ed.),  Early  Chicago  and  Illinois  (Chicago  Historical 
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Mason,  Richard  L.,  Narrative  of  Richard  Lee  Mason  in  the  Pioneer  West 
(New  York,  [1915]). 

Mathews,  Lois  K.,  The  Expansion  of  New  England.  The  Spread  of  New 
England  Settlement  and  Institutions  to  the  Mississippi  River,  1620-1865 
(Boston.  1000). 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  325 

Michelson,  Truman,  "Contributions  to  Algonquian  Grammar,"  in  American 
Anthropologist,  15:470-477. 

Minnesota  Historical  Society,  Collections,  15  volumes  (St.  Paul,  1850-1915). 

Morse,  Jedidiah,  A  Report  to  the  Secretary  of  War  of  the  United  States, 
on  Indian  Affairs,  comprising  a  narrative  of  a  tour  (New  Haven,  1822). 

Moses,  John,  Illinois  Historical  and  Statistical,  comprising  the  Essential 
Facts  of  its  Planting  and  Growth  as  a  Province,  County,  Territory,  and 
State,  2  volumes  (Chicago,  1892). 

Nlles*  Weekly  Register,  75  volumes  (Baltimore,  1811-1849). 

Ogg,  Frederic  A.  (ed.),  Personal  Narrative  of  Travels  in  Virginia,  Mary- 
land, Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Kentucky;  and  of  a  Residence  in  the 
Illinois  Territory:  1817-1818.  By  Elias  Pym  Fordham  (Cleveland,  1906). 

Patterson,  Robert  W.,  "Early  Society  in  Southern  Illinois,"  in  Fergus  His- 
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Perrin,  William  H.  (ed.),  History  of  Alexander,  Union,  and  Pulaski  Coun- 
ties, Illinois  (Chicago,  1883). 

Perrin,  William  H.  (ed.),  History  of  Crawford  and  Clark  Counties,  Illinois 
(Chicago,  1883). 

Perrin.  William  H.  (ed.),  History  of  Jefferson  County,  Illinois  (Chicago, 
1883). 

Pope's  Digest,  see  Illinois  Territory,  Laws. 

Preble,  George  H.,  A  Chronological  History  of  the  Origin  and  Development 
of  Steam  Navigation,  1543-1882  (Philadelphia,  1883). 

Quaife,  Milo  M.,  Chicago  and  the  Old  Northwest  1673-1835.  A  Study  of 
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Reynolds,  John,  My  Own  Times,  embracing  also,  the  History  of  My  Life 
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in  1673  and  the  History  of  the  Country  to  the  Year  1818,  when  the  State 
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Royce,  Charles  C.  (ed.),  Indian  Land  Cessions  in  the  United  States  (Bureau 
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Schoolcraft,  Henry  R.,  Personal  Memoirs  of  a  Residence  of  Thirty  Years 
.with  the  Indian  Tribes  on  the  American  Frontiers:  with  Brief  Notices 
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Schoolcraft,  Henry  R.,  Summary  Narrative  of  an  Exploratory  Expedition 
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New-York,  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  Ohio,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  and 
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326  ILLINOIS  IN  1818 

Shoemaker,  Floyd  C,  Missouri's  Struggle  for  Statehood,  1804-1821  (Jeffer- 
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Smith,  William  H.  (ed.),  St.  Clair  Papers.  The  Life  and  Public  Services 
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1824  (Virginia,  Illinois,  1906). 

Snyder,  John  F.,  "Forgotten  Statesmen  of  Illinois.  Conrad  Will,"  in  Illinois 
State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1905,  p.  349-377. 

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Table  of  Post-Offices  in  the  United  States,  with  the  Names  of  the  Post- 
Masters,  and  Counties  and  States  in  which  they  are  situated,  and  the 
Distances  from  the  City  of  Washington  (Washington,  1817). 

Thorpe,  Francis  N.  (ed.),  The^  Federal  and  State  Constitutions,  Colonial 
Charters,  and  Other  Organic  Laws  of  the  States,  Territories,  and  Col- 
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Thwaites,  Reuben  G.  (ed.),  Early  Western  Travels,  1748-1846,  A  Series  of 
Annotated  Reprints  of  some  of  the  best  and  rarest  contemporary  volumes 
of  travel,  descriptive  of  the  Aborigines  and  Social  and  Economic  Con- 
ditions in  the  Middle  and  Far  West,  during  the  Period  of  Early  Ameri- 
can Settlement,  32  volumes  (Cleveland,  1904-1907). 

Treat,  Payson  J.,  The  National  Land  System,  1785-1820  (New  York,  1910). 

United  States  Public  Documents,  Executive  Papers,  16  congress,  2  session, 
no.  8 ;  House  Documents,  15  congress,  2  session,  vol.  i,  no.  I ;  vol.  2,  no. 
46;  House  Documents,  26  congress,  i  session,  vol.  7,  no.  262;  House 
Journal,  15  congress,  i  session ;  House  Journal,  15  congress,  2  session ; 
Senate  Journal,  15  congress,  i  session. 

United  States,  Reports  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  2  volumes  (Wash- 
ington, 1828-1829). 

United  States,  Statutes  at  Large,  38  volumes  (Boston  and  Washington,  1850- 

I9IS). 
Walker,  Charles  A.  (ed.),  History  of  Macoupin  County,  Illinois,  2  volumes 

(Chicago,  1911). 

Washburne,  Elihu  B.  (ed.),  The  Edwards  Papers;  Being  a  Portion  of  the 
Collection  of  the  Letters,  Papers,  and  Manuscripts  of  Ninian  Edwards 
(Chicago  Historical  Society's  Collection,  vol.  3.  Chicago,  1884). 

Washburne,  Elihu  B.,  Sketch  of  Edward  Coles,  Second  Governor  of  Illinois, 
and  of  the  Slavery  Struggle  of  1823-4  (Chicago,  1882). 

Western  Intelligencer,  1816-1818.  (Kaskaskia,  Illinois)  [Continued  as  Illi- 
nois Intelligencer,  1818-1819]  Files  in  Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis, 
Missouri.  Photostatic  copies  in  Illinois  Historical  Survey. 

Wisconsin  Historical  Society,  Collections,  23  volumes  (Madison,  1855-1916). 

Woollen,  William  W.,  Biographical  and  Historical  Sketches  of  Early  Indiana 
(Indianapolis,  1883). 


INDEX 


Adams,  John  Quincy,  209. 

"Agis,"  objected  to  viva  voce  voting, 
272;  opinion  of,  on  slavery,  242-245, 
246;  probably  Edward  Coles,  242. 

Agriculture,  benefits  of  banks  to,  149- 
150;  Birkbeck  president  of  the  so- 
ciety for,  164;  effect  of  English  set- 
tlement on,  112;  French  method  of, 
91-92;  Indian  products  of,  3-4;  lim- 
itations to,  152;  methods  of  carrying 
on,  129,  133;  products  of,  128-133. 

Alabama  territory,  209,  222. 
Albany  [N.  Y.],  156. 

Albion,  141 ;  county  seat  of  Edwards 
county  after  1821,  p.  64;  description 
of  a  tavern  at,  125 ;  laid  out  in  the 
English  settlement,  64,  in;  library 
established  at,  169,  170. 

Alexander,  Dr.  W[illiam]  M.,  located 
in  America,  73, 

Alexander  county,  America  county 
seat  of,  73;  formed  from  part  of 
Union,  72. 

Algonkin,  manufactures  of,  5 ',  religion 
of,  7-8;  tribes  belonging  to  group 
of,  3.  See  Indians. 

Alleghanies,  i. 

Alton,  58,  84;  Dana  describes,  85; 
Goshen  road  ran  to,  1 14 ;  government 
survey  started  near,  42;  laid  out  by 
Easton,  85;  mail  route  through,  126. 

"Alton  on  the  river,"  see  Upper  Alton. 

America,  151,  157;  county  seat  of 
Alexander,  73;  establishment  of,  73. 

American  bottom,  89;  description  and 
location  of,  128-129;  extent  of  set- 
tlement in,  75-77;  French  settlement 
in,  88,  92 ;  land  purchases  in,  51 ; 
products  of,  128-129;  road  through, 
114. 


American  Fur  Company,  activity  of, 
24-35  5  Astor  dominated,  24-25 ;  Brit- 
ish employed  by,  23;  Crooks  and 
Stuart  agents  of,  24-25;  Crooks  sets 
forth  policy  of,  31 ; 

description  of:  Deschamps'  expe- 
dition by  Hubbard  employee  of,  32- 
35;  methods  of,  29-35;  traders  in, 
28-29; 

effect  of,  on  factory  system,  20,  21 ; 
encountered  competition  with  trad- 
ers from  St.  Louis,  26; 

employees  of :  at  Chicago,  27 ;  on 
Desplaines,  Illinois,  Kankakee,  and 
Wabash  rivers,  27; 

formed  by  Astor,  23;  headquar- 
ters at  New  York,  24;  importance 
of,  in  fur  trading,  22;  Mackinac  Is- 
land northwest  headquarters  of,  24- 
25- 

Amos  [Abraham],  councilor  from  St. 
Clair,  217;  voted  for  the  repeal  of 
the  indenture  law,  217. 

Anderson  [Richard  C,  Jr.],  member 
of  congressional  committee  to  con- 
sider constitution,  312;  opinion  of, 
on  slavery  article,  314-315;  represent- 
ative from  Kentucky,  312. 

Ankeny,  John,  led  number  of  Ger- 
mans west,  102. 

"Anticipator,"  254;  opinion  of,  on 
framing  a  constitution,  240;  suggests 
articles  for  the  constitution,  251-252. 

Anti-Edwards  faction,  description  and 
members  of,  200-203 ;  formation  of, 
193 ;  Kane  leader  of,  302 ;  McLean 
member  of,  294;  opposed  speculation, 
291 ;  point  of  contest  of,  with  the 
Edwards  faction,  206. 

Anti-Harrison  faction,  attitude  of,  to- 
ward slavery  set  forth  in  resolutions, 
189-190 ;  characterization  of,  192-193 ; 
defeated  indenture  law  in  1803,  p. 


(327) 


328 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Anti-Harrison  (cont.) 

186;  formation  of,  in  opposition  to 
Harrison,  185;  influence  of,  in  terri- 
torial politics,  191,  193;  opposed  ad- 
vance to  second  grade,  186-187; 

petitioned :  congress  to  join  Illinois 
country  to  Louisiana,  186;  for  the 
division  of  Indiana,  and  repeal  of 
slavery  article  in  1805,  p.  188-189; 
three  times  in  1808,  p.  192. 

Apple  creek,  settlement  along,  83,  84. 

"Aristides,"  wrote  against  government 
under  the  ordinance,  208. 

Armstrong,  Fort,  10;  Marston  com- 
mander at,  21 ;  population  at,  319 ; 
post  at,  12. 

Arundale   [William  Arundel],   155. 

Astor,  John  Jacob,  27 ;  aim  of,  in  form- 
ing American  Fur  Company,  24; 
American  Fur  Company  formed  and 
dominated  by,  23,  24-25 ;  influence  of, 
in  securing  law  permitting  employ- 
ment of  British  traders,  23  n ;  in- 
terest of,  in  Southwest  Company,  23. 

Augusta,  advertisement  of  advantages 
to  merchants,  146-147 ;  description  of, 
146-147. 

Baird,  Joseph,  155. 

Baltimore   [Md.],  Comegys  from,  73. 

Banks,  comments  on  the  establishment 
of  the  state  bank,  151-152;  editorial 
encouraging,  148-150; 

incorporated  at:  Edwardsville, 
148;  Shawneetown,  69,  148;  Kaskas- 
kia,  76; 

"Nemo's"  mention  of,  157-158; 
provisions  of  constitution  affecting, 
283. 

Bankson  [Andrew],  convention  dele- 
gate from  Washington,  280;  favored 
location  of  capital  site  at  Coving- 
ton,  289;  opposed  changes  in  slavery 
article,  280;  voted  against  striking 


Bankson  (cont.) 

out    section   two   of    slavery   article, 
281. 

Baptists,  antislavery  activity  of,  319; 
extent  of  influence  of,  173 ;  Lemen's 
activity  in  behalf  of,  131,  319. 

Barbour  [James],  senator  from  Vir- 
ginia opposed  postponing  passage  of 
the  enabling  act,  228. 

Barnsback,  George,  typical  example  of 
an  immigrant,  103. 

Bate,  John,  lease  of,  on  the  Shawnee- 
town  salt  works,  200. 

Bates,  ,  155. 

Beardstown,  43. 
Beattie,  Dr.  James,  245. 

Beaubien,  Jean  Baptiste,  transferred 
to  Chicago,  27. 


Beauveaux, 
16. 


-,   license   refused  to, 


Belleville  (Bellville,  Belville),  77; 
bookkeeping  taught  in  school  near, 
164 ;  distance  of  Augusta  from,  147 ; 
Edwards  advertises  land  in,  153,  154; 
foundation  of,  as  county  seat  of  St. 
Clair,  80-;  mail  route  through,  126; 
on  road  from  Kaskaskia  to  Edwards- 
ville, 115-116. 

Belt,  Robert,  factor  at  Fort  Edwards, 

17- 
Bennett,  Louis,  n  n. 

Bennett's  tavern,  231 ;  crowded  during 
the  constitutional  convention,  262; 
located  at  Kaskaskia,  76. 

Berry,  Elijah  C,  auditor  of  public  ac- 
counts, 275,  305.  See  "Berry  and 
Blackwell"  and  "Berry  and  Cook." 

"Berry  and  Blackwell,"  209;  firm  pub- 
lishing Western  Intelligencer,  172. 

"Berry  and  Cook,"  firm  publishing 
Western  Intelligencer,  172. 


INDEX 


329 


Bibeau, ,  description  of,  34;  super- 
vised trading  house  at  mouth  of  Bu- 
reau river,  34. 

Biggs,  William,  defeated  for  state  sen- 
ator by  Kinney,  301 ;  opposed  slavery, 
261  n;  representative  of  St.  Clair  at 
Vincennes  in  1805,  p.  187. 

Big  Muddy  river,  118  n,  175;  drains 
Franklin  county,  71 ;  extent  of  settle- 
ment along,  in  Jackson  county,  74; 
influence  of,  on  transportation,  113; 
purchases  along,  52. 

Big  prairie,  Birkbeck's  party  reached, 
106. 

Big  Spring,  175. 

Big  Wabash  river,  see  Wabash  river. 

Birkbeck,  Morris,  46,  264;  antislavery 
influence  of,  in  Edwards  county,  257 ; 
author  of  Letters  from  Illinois  and 
Notes  on  a  Journey,  112;  book  of, 
published  in  Philadelphia  and  Lon- 
don, 108;  characterizes  the  pioneers, 
97,  98;  comments  on  small  demand 
for  manufactures,  152  n;  declares 
farmers  place  chief  reliance  on  stock, 
142;  describes  steamboat  activity  on 
the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers,  114; 
failure  of  petition  of,  to  purchase 
large  grant,  107-108;  Flower  accom- 
panied on  western  tour,  103;  gives 
reason  for  locating  in  Illinois,  104- 
105;  influence  of  book  of,  112;  jour- 
neys into  Illinois  in  search  of  prairie 
land,  105-106;  laid  off  Wanborough, 
no;  moved  family  to  Boltenhouse 
prairie,  108;  plans  to  import  English 
laborers,  136;  president  of  the  agri- 
cultural society  of  Illinois,  162;  pur- 
chased land  in  Edwards  county  for 
English  settlement,  53;  purpose  of 
Flower  and,  in  planning  English  set- 
tlement, 103;  to  enter  land  claim  at 
Shawneetown  for  Boltenhouse  prai- 
rie, 107;  toured  country  to  find  suit- 
able site  for  English  settlement,  103- 
104. 


Black  river,  176. 

Blackwell,  Robert,  auditor  of  public 
accounts,  209  n.  See  "Berry  and 
Blackwell"  and  "Cook  and  Black- 
well." 

Blackwell  and  Berry,  elected  public 
printers,  305. 

Blair,  George,  Belleville  located  on 
land  of,  80;  opposed  slavery,  261  n. 

Blenheim,  proposed  town  of,  77. 

Blondeau,  Maurice,  Indian  sub-agent, 
13. 

Bloomfield  precinct,  71. 

Boltenhouse    prairie,    Birkbeck:    and 
party  reach,  106-107 ;  moved  his  fam- 
ily to,  108;  to  enter  land  claim  for, 
107; 
English  settlement  on,  110-112. 

Bond,  Shadrach,  152,  198,  275,  298,  300, 
312;  addresses  general  assembly,  301- 
302,  310-311;  candidate  for  territo- 
rial delegate,  294;  characterization 
of,  303;  communication  of,  relative 
to  road  from  Shawneetown  to  Kas- 
kaskia,  118-119;  convenes  general  as- 
sembly, 316-317;  delegate  to  con- 
gress from  Indiana,  202;  dominated 
by  Kane,  302-303;  governor  of  Illi- 
nois, 296,  299;  member  of  the  anti- 
Edwards  faction,  201 ;  nephew  of, 
placed  on  the  Indiana  council,  1808, 
p.  191  n ;  opposition  to  the  election 
of,  as  delegate  to  congress,  197 ;  pro- 
claims Illinois  a  state,  316-317;  race 
of,  for  congress,  294-296;  receiver 
of  the  land  office  at  Kaskaskia,  202; 
refused  to  join  any  faction,  206;  rep- 
resentative from  St.  Clair  county  to 
Vincennes  in  1805,  p.  187 ;  represent- 
ed St.  Clair  county  at  Cincinnati, 
184;  signed  petition  for  the  repeal 
of  the  slavery  article  in  1800,  p.  185 ; 
sketch  of  the  political  life  of,  202, 
295 ;  territorial  delegate  to  congress, 
295- 


330 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Bond,  Shadrach,  Jr.,  nephew  of  Shad- 
rach  Bond,  191  n ;  placed  on  the  In- 
diana council,  191. 

Bond  county,  134,  281 ;  census  report 
from,  264,  318;  convention  delegates 
not  elected  before  August,  260;  de- 
scription and  population  of,  86-87; 
establishment  of,  220;  Kirkpatrick 
and  Morse  convention  delegates,  280 ; 
one  senator  apportioned  to,  285 ;  op- 
posed to  slavery,  261 ;  Pope's  Bluff 
located  in,  289 ;  postal  service  in,  126 ; 
Ripley  situated  in,  287 ;  two  delegates 
for  the  constitutional  convention  ap- 
portioned to,  228.  See  Fayette  and 
Montgomery  counties. 

Bon  Pas  creek  (Bonpas),  ill;  Eng- 
lish settlement  between  Little  Wa- 
bash  river  and,  63,  103. 

Boon's  lick,  147,  243-244. 

Borough  [Joseph],  convention  delegate 
from  Madison,  280;  opposed  White's 
section  on  slavery,  281 ;  suggestions 
of,  relative  to  the  extension  of  fran- 
chise, 284-285 ;  voted  for  changes  in 
slavery  article,  280. 

Boston  [Mass.],  164,  170. 
Boucoup  creek,  124. 

Bowers,  Jos[eph],  advertises  for  labor- 
ers, 143. 

Bradsby,  William,  introduced  bill  for 
the  repeal  of  the  law  permitting  in- 
dentured servitude,  216;  opposed 
concessions  to  the  judges,  205 ;  pro- 
posed admission  of  territory  as  a 
state,  212-213 ;  representative  from 
St.  Clair,  203  n;  signed  address 
against  slavery,  261  n. 

Brady,  ,   advertised   lots   in  Har- 

risonville,  78. 

Breese,  Sidney,  law  student  in  Kane's 
office,  266  n. 

British,  aided  by  American  pioneers, 
99;  American  Fur  Company  employ- 


British  (cont.) 

ed,  23;  connection  of,  with  fur  trade, 
8;  frontier  life  did  not  attract,  103; 
included  in  census  of  Gallatin  coun- 
ty, 264;  Indian  grants  to,  37; 

influence:  of  Birkbeck's  book  on, 
108-109;  on  Indians,  9-11,  13-14;  on 
method  of  fur  trading,  21-22;  trad- 
ers, 20; 

lose  trading  houses,  17;  own 
Northwest  Company,  22;  regime  of, 
92;  trading  licenses  refused  to,  16; 
traveler  describes  tavern,  125.  See 
also  English  settlement. 

Browne,  Thomas  C,  candidate  for  su- 
preme judge,  304;  councilor  from 
Gallatin,  217;  elected  associate  judge, 
305;  lawyer  at  Shawneetown,  201; 
member  of  the  Edwards  faction,  201, 
304;  voted  against  the  repeal  of  the 
indenture  law,  217. 

Brown  [Samuel],  author  of  Western 
Gazetteer,  75; 

visited:  Cahokia,  79;  Kaskaskia, 
75-76;  Prairie  du  Rocher,  77. 

Brownsville,  county  seat  of  Jackson, 
74;  decline  of,  after  removal  of 
county  seat,  60;  description  of,  74- 
75;  settlement  of  Pennsylvania  Ger- 
mans at,  102. 

Buisson,  Louis,  nn. 

Bureau  river,  trading  house  situated 
at  mouth  of,  34. 

Burke,  Captain,  169. 

Burrill  [James  Jr.],  opinion  of,  on 
educational  provision  of  constitu- 
tion, 229;  senator  from  Rhode  Is- 
land, 229. 


Cache  river,  extent  of  settlement 
along,  71,  72;  purchases  along,  52; 
Trinity  and  America  located  on,  73. 

Cadwell,  George,  state  senator  from 
Madison  county,  300. 


INDEX 


331 


Cahokia,  88,  259;  county  seat  of  St. 
Clair  until  1814,  p.  79;  decline  of, 
60;  Deschamps'  brigade  purchases 
supplies  at,  34;  description  of,  79- 
80;  on  postal  route  from  Kaskaskia, 
126;  residents  described,  89;  Rey- 
nolds lived  at,  304;  road  through, 
114. 

Cahokia  creek,  84 ;  Edwards  advertised 
land  on,  154. 

Cahokia  Indians,  disappearance  of,  as 
distinct  tribe,  2. 

Cain, ,  121. 

Cairns  [Caldwell],  convention  delegate 
from  Monroe,  280;  opposed  White's 
section  on  slavery,  281 ;  suggestions 
made  by,  relative  to  arbitration,  286; 
voted  for  changes  in  slavery  article, 
280. 

Cairo,    151,    157,    158;    failure   of   Co- 

megys'  scheme  for,  73-74. 
Caldwell,  John,  receiver  of  the  Shaw- 

neetown  land  office,  200. 

Calhoun  [John  C],  instructions  of, 
concerning  Indians,  10. 

Calhoun  county,  57;  extent  of  settle- 
ment in,  83;  formed  from  part  of 
Madison,  83. 

Calumet  river,  Deschamps'  brigade  at, 
33- 

Canada,  10,  23,  28,  183;  French  emi- 
grated from,  76,  88,  95;  Menard 
from,  92. 

"Candor,"  opinion  of,,  on  slavery,  237- 
238. 

Cape  Girardeau,  177. 

Carlyle  (Carlisle,  Carlysle),  52,  58;  as- 
pired to  be  state  capital,  82,  308,  310; 
founding  of,  82;  Goshen  road  ran 
through,  63,  114,  115;  Hill's  Ferry 
advertised  as,  288;  mail  route 
through,  126.  See  also  Hill's  Ferry. 

Cartni,  130;  bridge  builder  wanted  at, 
143;  county  seat  of  White,  65;  de- 


Carmi  (cont.) 

scription  of,  65 ;  Grant  of,  adver- 
tises merchandise  in  the  Illinois  Emi- 
grant, 145-146;  on  road  from  Shaw- 
neetown  to  English  settlement,  115. 

Carthage,  see  Harrisonville. 

Cartwright,  Peter,  influence  of,  in  the 
Methodist  church,  175. 

Casey,  James,  commissioner  at  Carmi, 
143- 

Cass  [Lewis],  comments  on  influence 
of  British  among  Indians,  10-11; 
describes  visitation  of  Indians  to  a 
garrison,  14-15 ;  dislikes  factory  sys- 
tem, 20-21 ;  governor  of  Michigan 
territory,  9;  instructions  for  In- 
dians sent  to,  10;  opinion  of,  on  the 
Indians'  dependence,  9;  supervised 
agents  at  Green  Bay  and  Chicago, 
12-13. 

"Caution,"  opinion  of,  on  selection  of 
men  to  the  convention,  250;  opposed 
slavery,  236-237. 

Census,  abstract  of  census  of  1818,  p. 
318-319;  congress  wishes,  221;  coir- 
vention  considers  returns  of,  -263- 
266;  Cook  did  not  wish  to  retard 
movement  for  statehood  until  after 
taking  of,  214;  counted  English-  in 
Gallatin,  109;  Edwards  recommend- 
ed taking  of,  212;  effects  of  the 
slavery  controversy  on,  238-241 ;  en- 
abling act  provides  for,  227-228;  im- 
portant to  secure  report  of  forty 
thousand  inhabitants,  230,  249;  Mor- 
rison's report,  190;  names  of  pio- 
neers taken  from  reports  of,  93,  96; 
report  of:  Bond  county,  86,  318; 
Crawford  county,  60-62,  318;  Ed- 
wards county,  62-64,  318;  Franklin 
county,  71-72,  318;  Gallatin  county, 
66-70,  109,  318;  Jackson  county,  74, 
318;  Johnson  county,  70-71,  311  n, 
318;  Madison  county,  82-86,  318,  319; 
Monroe  county,  78-79,  318;  Pope 
county,  70,  318;  Randolph  county, 


332 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Census  (cont.) 

75-77,  3i8;  St.  Clair  county,  79-81, 
318;  Union  county,  72-73,  318; 
Washington  county,  81-82,  318; 
White  county,  64-65,  318; 

reports  in  Missouri  territory  re- 
veal increase  in  population  due  to 
toleration  of  slavery,  140;  represent- 
atives apportioned  according  to, 
taken  prior  to  convention,  285 ;  state 
constitution  provides  for,  272;  ter- 
ritorial legislature  in  1818,  orders,  56- 
57,  219-220. 

Chambers,  Benjamin,  president  of  the 
Indiana  council,  189;  signed  petition 
of  1805,  p.  189. 

Chambers.  Lieutenant  Colonel,  com- 
mander at  Fort  Crawford,  26. 

Chandonnais,  Jean  Baptiste,  American 
Fur  Company  trader  at  Chicago,  27. 

Cheek,  J.,  advertised  school  in  Kaskas- 
kia,  166. 

Chester,  made  county  seat  of  Randolph 
in  1844,  P-  77- 

Chicago,  agency  of  Indian  department 
at,  12;  agent  at,  under  Cass,  12-13; 
Beaubien  transferred  to,  27;  Des- 
champs'  brigade  at,  33;  factory  at, 
17;  importance  of,  as  a  lake  port, 
225,  226;  Jouett  agent  at,  16;  Mc- 
Kenney*s  opinion  of  British  influence 
at,  20;  method  of  conducting  trade 
at,  18;  military  establishment  at,  12; 
Potawatomi  located  near,  2;  pro- 
posed military  post  at,  9;  trade  re- 
turns at,  19;  traders  at,  equipped  by 
American  Fur  Company,  27 ;  trading 
house  at,  before  war  of  1812,  p.  17 ; 
value  of  furs  exported  from,  22; 
Varnum  head  of  factory  at,  n,  17. 

Chicago  river,  Conant  and  Mack's  es- 
tablishment on  branch  of,  27;  Des- 
champs*  brigade  went  up  branch  of, 
33. 


Chippewa,  annuity  paid  to,  13;  Clark 
to  conclude  treaty  with,  9;  location 
of,  2;  make  land  cessions,  38,  40. 

Chouteau,  Auguste,  member  of  com- 
mission to  conclude  treaty  with  In- 
dians, 9;  negotiates  treaty  with  In- 
dians at  Edwardsville  in  1818,  p.  39; 
United  States  commissioner,  39. 

Cincinnati,  first  legislature  of  north- 
west territory  met  at,  184;  Fordham 
joined  Birkbeck  and  Flower  at,  103  n. 

"A  citizen,"  opinion  of,  on  slavery, 
248,  256,  297. 

Claiborne  [Thomas],  member  of  the 
congressional  committee  considering 
memorial  for  statehood,  221 ;  repre- 
sentative from  Tennessee,  221. 

Clark,  George  Rogers,  40,  88;  occupied 
French  villages,  92,  181. 

Clark  [William],  governor  of  Missouri 
territory,  9;  member  of  commission 
to  conclude  treaty  with  Indians,  9. 

Clark  county,  Illinois:  58;  formed 
from  part  of  Crawford,  60;  settle- 
ment in,  6l ; 

Indiana:  opposed  indenture  law, 
188;  representatives  from,  did  not 
sign  legislative  petition  of  1805,  p. 
188. 

Clark,  Fort,  population  at,  240,  319; 
post  at,  12. 

Clay,  Henry,  laid  Illinois  constitution 
before  national  house,  311. 

Clay  county,  extent  of  settlement  in, 
62; 

formed  from  part  of:  Crawford, 
60;  Edwards,  62. 

Clinton  county,  Carlyle  in,  288;  ex- 
tent of  population  in,  81 ;  formed 
from  part  of  St.  Clair,  81. 

Clothing,  description  of:  French,  89, 
90;  Indians',  4-5;  pioneers',  132-134. 


INDEX 


333 


Coles,  Edward,  119;  at  Kaskaskia  at 
time  of  the  convention,  242,  262; 
opinion  of,  on  prominence  of  slavery 
in  political  discussions,  319;  probably 
wrote  under  name  of  "Agis"  on  slav- 
ery, 242-245;  second  governor,  242; 
sketch  of  life  of,  242. 

Columbia,  168. 

Comegys,  John  G.,  failure  of  scheme 
of,  for  Cairo,  73-74- 

"Common  Sense,"  discusses  common 
law,  254-255. 

Compton  [Levi],  convention  delegate 
from  Edwards,  280;  voted  against 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280. 

Conant  [Shubael],  see  Conant  and 
Mack. 

Conant  and  Mack,  establishment  of,  on 
branch  of  Chicago  river,  27-28. 

Connecticut,  Daggett  senator  from, 
228;  number  of  emigrants  from,  94; 
Pitkin  representative  from,  312. 

Cook,    Daniel,    attorney-general,    305; 

auditor  of  public  accounts,  194,  209; 

Duncan  sold  the  Intelligencer  to,  209 ; 

candidate  for:  congress,  232,  294; 

territorial  delegate,  294; 

Edwards'  son-in-law,  194;  esti- 
mates number  of  French  inhabi- 
tants, 89  n;  elected  clerk  of  the 
house,  1817,  p.  212;  from  Kentucky, 
194;  inaugurated  movement  for 
statehood  and  interest  in,  209-214, 
220,  223,  231,  237;  interested  in  land 
in  Madison  and  Edwards  counties, 
154;  laid  out  Waterloo,  with  For- 
quer,  78-79;  member  of  the  Edwards 
faction,  201,  294;  nephew  of  Pope's, 

1945 

opinion  of :  on  Bond's  friendship 
for  Edwards,  303 ;  on  Kane's  influ- 
ence, 304;  on  merits  of  men  for  the 
convention,  236,  250; 

Pope  left  Kaskaskia  before  the  re- 
turn of,  220;  race  of,  for  congress, 
294-298;  wrote  against  slavery,  234- 
236,  296-297,  319-320;  wrote  under 


Cook  (cont.) 

the  name  of  "A  republican,"  210-213, 
234.  See  "Berry  and  Cook,"  "Cook 
and  Blackwell,"  and  "Daniel  P.  Cook 
and  Co." 

"Cook,  Daniel  P.  and  Co.,"  estab- 
lished Western  Intelligencer,  171. 

"Cook  and  Blackwell,"  firm  publish- 
ing the  Western  Intelligencer,  171. 

Copeland,  John,  pro  slavery  advocate, 
257  n. 

Cork  [Ireland],  Birkbeck's  book  pub- 
lished in,  112. 

Covenanters,  Kane  presented  petitions 
of,  to  convention,  266-267. 

Covington,  157;  county  seat  of  Wash- 
ington, 81,  287;  decline  of,  after 
removal  of  county  seat,  60;  descrip- 
tion and  location  of,  287-288;  dis- 
tance of  Augusta  from,  147;  entered 
race  for  capital  site,  82,  287,  289. 

Cox,  Thomas,  advertised  merchandise 
in  Intelligencer,  144;  state  senator 
from  Union  county,  300. 

Cowles,  Edward,  advertised  merchan- 
dise in  Intelligencer,  144. 

Crab  Orchard  creek,  drains  William- 
son county,  71. 

Crafts,   John,   trader   of   Conant   and 

Mack's,  27. 

Crawford  county,  49  n,  57  n,  86,  281 ; 
census  report  from,  264,  318;  con- 
vention delegates  not  elected  before 
August,  260; 

Cullom :  census  commissioner  in, 
239;  convention  delegate  from,  280; 
prominent  in,  300;  representative 
from,  200 n; 

description  and  population  of,  60- 
62;  establishment  of,  220; 

Kitchell:  convention  delegate 
from,  262  n,  280 ;  senator  from,  305  ; 

McLean  expected  to  beat  Bond 
in,  295;  one  senator  apportioned  to, 
285;  Palestine  county  seat  of,  61; 
part  of  Foster's  circuit,  305;  Riggs 


ILLINOIS  IN  XXI* 


O  ••!••'  ( 


1 

for 


from,  301; 


*1  to,  228.    Stt 


mis*  Clark,  Oar.  Edgar,  Fayette,  Jas- 
per, Lawrence,   Ifarion,  and  Rkh- 

..  r~-  ~  : :  n    r  :  n. 

319- 
Lfobn  Jordan], 

provision,  229; 
from  Kentucky,  229. 

.  r      •:;  i    :  ~  -.  -.  •'.    ,~ 

Crooks,    Ramsay,   32;   advises 

~  -.~ .  -~.    ~-~  :  ic±"   :i  Arr.;~r2^i  r -ir 

24-aS; 
of 

24; 

traders,  28;  headquarters  of, 

York  ami  Ifackmac,  25;  reports  on 


EHHB 


mats,  27. 

.  .l.i  ..ill  .ri     jrjlu_rJ     « 

— ,  aovertiseo,  scnoot  m 
166-167. 

^»     ^  ••»•  -  •    V^         .  ***     -  -      fju-  ** 

^_-^ -•       -^ ^.r _  r  _- 

:;_in:     j:    i_— :r      ^:«:        :;-ve-r:- 
it  iri:t   :r:~    _n~  :;"i    —  M     ~t~- 

starery,  281 ;  prominent  in  Crawford 

Crawford  onmlj,  203  n  ;  son  of,  cen- 
239;    voted    for 
in  slavery  ailkle,  280. 


Dana  (cont) 

name  appears  in  Edwardsvffle 
?_;    5:  : 

visited:  Alton,  85-86;  Cabokia,  79; 
Carljle,  82;  Kaska^fcia,  76. 

Darfing.  Daniel,  for  trader,  26. 
Davenport,    H[annadnke]    S,    repre- 

SduZuVC        XTOO1        \x3LU2tm        COGUtV 

203  n. 

Davis,  Nathan,  icacutntJliwc.  from 
Jackson  coanty,  203  n. 

Dearborn  connty  [Indiana J,  protested 
agamst  mdentnre  law  ami  petitioned 
to  be  joined  to  Ohio,  188,  189; 

petition  of  1805,  p.  189;  elected  dale- 
gate  to  congress  from  Indiana,  191 ; 
at  Yincennes  in  1805.  p. 

advance  to  second 
grade,  187. 

Dearborn,     Fort, 


Vflj 


of 


Sketches,  76; 


setrie- 
,  84,  85; 


Delaware,  number  of  emigrants 
from,  04. 

~  ~  i  r~.  t  5 .     I  ~.  - 

Deschamps,  Antoine,  Hnbbard  de- 
scribes journey  of  fur  brigade  of, 
33-35;  ffiinob  river  for  trade  super- 
vised by,  27,  29. 

DCS  \foinfs  nver.  Fort  Edwards  op- 
posite month  of,  12. 


pany's  qupluaces  on,  27;  DCS- 
cnamps  brigade  reacnes,  33 »  ***"""* 
cede  land  on,  39. 

Detroit,  13,  187;  firm  of  Conant  and 
•lark  at,  27;  nuntarjr  estabfisfament 
at.  12. 

TEpfigil  rrrer,  10, 
District  of  Colombia,  i& 

Dodge,  Henry  SL,  candidate  for:  asso- 
305 ;  sopreme  judge,  304, 


INDEX 


:.:: 


Donaldson,  aspired  to  be  state  capital, 
82,  308;  laid  out  by  William  and 
Robert  Morrison,  308. 

DrmniDOfUA  s  JJB9BBL  jPntisn  ffistriuPtc 
presents  at,  10,  13. 

Dublin  [Ireland],  Birkbeck's  book 
published  in,  112. 

Dmnoulin,  John,  signed  petition  for 
the  repeal  of  the  slavery  article,  185. 

Duncan,  Matthew,  sold  InteUigeiuer  to 
Cook,  171,  209. 

Dakota,  Whmebago  belong  to  stock 
of,  3- 

Easton,  Colonel,  laid  out  Alton,  85. 

East  St.  Louis,  see  Dlinoistown. 

Echols  [William],  convention  delegate. 
from  Union,  280;  voted  against 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280. 


Eddy,  Henry,  established  the 
Emigrant  in  conjunction  with  the 
Kimmels,  172-173;  lawyer  from 
Pittsburgh,  172.  See  Eddy  and  Kim- 
meL 

Eddv  and  Kimmel,  firm  publishing  Ac 
Illinois  Emigrant,  172. 

Edgar,  John,  land  speculator,  52;  not 
•ember  of  the  \  incomes  conven- 
tion, 186;  represented  Pindofrh 


signed  petition  :    ac*f""ff  ' 
law,  192;  for  repeal  of  the  slavery 
article  in  1796  and  1800,  p.  185  ; 

transferred  land  to  Stephenson  in 
Kaskaskia,  154.  See  anri-UJmimi 
faction. 

Edgar  and  Morrison  faction,  see  anti- 
Harrison  faction. 

Edgar  comity,  57;  formed  from  part 
of  Crawford,  60;  government  survey 
ran  near  boundary  between  Ver- 
milion county  and,  42;  settlement 
in.  6l. 


Edwards,   Ninian,   139,  209,  296, 

238;  became  proprietor  of  BefleviDe, 
80 ;  chief  justice  of  Ac  court  of.  ap- 
peals of  Kentucky,  193; 

Cook:  gives  opinion  of  Bond's 
friendship  for,  303;  son-in-law  of, 
194;  writes,  relative  to  election  of 
representative  to  congress,  295; 

established:  Madison  county  0 
1812,  p.  84;  ttirrf  counties  in  "frf^. 
p.  196-197: 

ef  ofcio  Indian  superintendent  in 
Illinois  territory,  12;  fjatttmtr  of 
Illinois  teiiiior>,  9,  193;  held  four 
slaves,  84;  Indian  policy  of,  14;  in- 
terest of,  in  land  speculation,  75,  80, 
153-156.  200;  leader  of  Edwards  fac- 
tion, 206;  member  of  commission  to 
conclude  treaty  with  Indians,  after 
war  of  1812,  p.  9;  members  of  the 
faction  of,  201;  negotiates  treaty 
with  Indians  at  Edwardsville  in  1818, 
P-  39;  objections  of,  to  the  bin  for 
the  repeal  of  the  indenture  law,  217- 
218;  opinion  of,  on  the  legislative 
control  of  the  j"*^ff*^,  198-199;  pro- 
posed taking  of  the  cn-nqi^  212;  re- 
fused British  traders  admission  to 
tenilory,  16;  relation  of  Bond  to, 
202;  Reynolds  writes,  in  regard  to 
lawyer's  interest  m  land  claims,  154- 
156;  senator,  303,316;  soperinteiMient 
of  the  salt  works  in  1809,  p.  200; 
L,  mtcd  jt^Tts  TTMBiiiiSSMUmv  39  • 
wished  to  remove  piupeitj  qualifica- 
tion for  suffrage,  196.  See  also  Ed- 
"  in 5  :a:t: :~ 

Edwards  county,  57  n,  69, 289 ;  antislav- 
ery  mfinence  of  Bnkbeck,  m,  257* 
Btrkbeck  purchased  land  m,  for 
English  settlement,  52-53;  census  re- 
port from.  264,  318; 

convention  delegates:  not  elected 
before  August  260;  voted  on  anti- 
slavery  side,  256; 

Cook's  interest  in  land  in,  154;  de- 
scription and  population  of,  62-64 ; 


336 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Edwards  (cont.) 

description  of  the  English  settlement 
in,  103-113;  English  colonists  for,  in- 
cluded in  Gallatin  county  census, 
264;  establishment  of,  220;  Card 
representative  from,  203  n ;  McLean 
expected  to  beat  Bond  in,  295;  one 
senator  apportioned  to,  285 ;  Palmyra 
county  seat  of,  64;  part  of  Foster's 
circuit,  305 ;  two  delegates  for  the 
constitutional  convention  appor- 
tioned to,  228.  See  also  Clay,  Jeffer- 
son, Lawrence,  Marion,  Richland, 
Wabash,  and  Wayne  counties. 

Edwards  faction,  Browne  member  of, 
304;  Cook  member  of,  294;  descrip- 
tion and  members  of,  200-203;  did 
not  control  organization  of  the  con- 
vention, 263;  formation  of,  193;  in- 
terest of,  in  speculation,  289,  291; 
interested  in  moving  the  capital  site 
to  Pope's  Bluff,  289;  opinion  of,  on 
location  of  capital  site,  298;  points 
of  contest  of,  with  the  anti-Edwards 
faction,  206;  Stephenson  one  of  the 
leaders  of,  194;  victory  of,  on  the 
duties  of  the  judges,  199-200. 

Edwards,  Fort,  Belt  factor  at,  17 ;  fac- 
tory at,  17;  method  of  conducting 
trade  at,  18;  population  at,  240,  319; 
post  at,  12;  trade  returns  at,  19. 

Edwardsville,  77,  83,  158,  160,  175, 
288;  acreage  of  land  office  sales  in 
district  of,  49-51 ;  attracts  settlers, 
102;  bank  incorporated  at,  148; 
boundary  and  area  of  district  of, 
44-45 ;  Chouteau  and  Edwards  nego- 
tiate Indian  treaty  at,  in  1818,  p.  39; 
Coles'  home  in,  242;  county  seat  of 
Madison  county,  84,  143;  description 
of,  84-85,  143;  distance  of  Augusta 
from,  147;  Edwards'  land  specula- 
tion in,  153-154;  farmers  and  me- 
chanics advertised  for  in,  142 ;  Flagg 
wrote  from,  129;  Goshen  road  ran 
to,  114;  land  office  located  at,  44,  58, 
84-85,  143;  list  of  library  books  at, 


Edwardsville  (cont.) 

170-171;  merchants  of,  advertised  in 
the  Intelligencer,  144;  part  of  Kas- 
kaskia  district  added  to  district  of, 
47;  Pope  register  of  land  office  at, 
301  n ;  postal  routes  start  from,  126 ; 
Reynolds  visited,  156;  road  from 
Kaskaskia  to,  115;  singing  society  at, 
164 ;  speculation  in  district  of,  53 ; 

Stephenson:  interest  of,  in  land 
in,  154;  receiver  of  land  office  at, 
194;  register  of  land  office  at,  84; 

subscription  library  erected  at,  170. 
See  also  land  offices. 

Edwardsville  Spectator,  170. 

Elvira,  county  seat  of  Johnson  county, 

71. 
Elvira  precinct,  71. 

Embarras  river,  60,  119;  extent  of  set- 
tlement along,  in  Edwards,  63;  in- 
fluence of,  on  transportation,  113. 

Emigrant,  see  Illinois  Emigrant. 

England,  160,  162,  163;  books  sent 
from,  169;  Coles  traveled  in,  242; 
conditions  in,  leading  to  emigration, 
104;  description  of  Flower's  parties 
from,  109-110;  Flower  to  return  to, 
for  settlers,  107;  Illinois  advertised 
in,  112;  number  of  settlers  from,  in 
1818,  p.  94;  plans  to  import  labor- 
ers from,  136-137;  settlers  arrive 
from,  109. 

English,  see  British. 

English  prairie,  increase  of  population 
on,  62. 

English  settlement,  98;  description  of 
founding  of,  103-112;  difficulty  of 
securing  labor  in,  136-137;  Flower 
describes  development  of,  110-112; 
founding  of  Wanborough  in,  no; 
influence  of,  on  public  affairs,  112; 
library  established  at  Albion  in,  169; 
located  in  Illinois  because  of  Flow- 
er's preference  for  prairie  land,  105- 
107;  petition  of,  for  better  postal 


INDEX 


337 


English  (cont.) 

service,  126;  purpose  of  Birkbeck 
and  Flower  in  planning,  103 ;  road 
from  Shawneetown  to,  115;  view  of 
slavery  in,  136-137. 

Equality,  establishment  of,  66. 

"Erin,"  suggests  subjects  for  discus- 
sion by  the  convention,  254. 

Estes,  Thomas,  154. 

Factories,  affected  by  activity  of 
American  Fur  Company,  21-23; 
Cass  comments  on,  20-21 ;  failure  of, 
19-22;  location  of,  17-18;  manage- 
ment of  trade  at,  18-19;  Marston 
comments  on  system  of,  21 ;  mili- 
tary posts  to  protect,  12;  purpose 
of,  12;  system  of,  established,  17. 

Farnham,  Russell,  opened  up  trade 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  26;  sent 
on  trading  expedition,  25-26;  traded 
with  Sauk  and  Fox,  26. 

Fayette  county,  57;  established  in 
1821,  p.  87; 

formed  from  part  of:     Bond,  86; 
Crawford,  60; 
settlement  in,  61,  86. 

Fearon  [Henry  B.],  152  n. 

Ferguson  [Hamlet],  convention  dele- 
gate from  Pope,  280;  opposed 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280;  voted 
for  White's  section  on  slavery,  281. 

Field,  Green  B.,  state  representative 
from  Pope  county,  300. 

Fisher,  George,  attitude  of,  on  slavery, 
219;  candidate  as  delegate  to  con- 
vention, 257;  convention  delegate 
from  Randolph,  280;  defeated  for 
state  senatorship  by  McFerron,  300; 
favored  advance  to  second  grade, 
187;  opposed  the  repeal  of  the  inden- 
ture law  in  the  territory,  216-217; 
placed  on  the  Indiana  council,  191 ; 
representative  from  Randolph  county 
to  Vincennes  in  1805,  p.  187;  signed 


Fisher  (cont.) 

petitions  of  1805  and  1807,  p.  188-189, 
190 ;  speaker  in  the  house,  202,  203  n ; 
voted  for  changes  in  slavery  article, 
280. 

Flack,  John,  124. 

Flagg,  Gershom,  163; 

describes :  conditions  for  raising 
stock  in  Madison  county,  141; 
method  of  raising  corn,  129; 
unhealthfulness  of  the  country,  160, 
162; 

estimates  value  of  corn,  129-130; 
settler  from  Vermont,  129. 

Flint,    John,    classifies    the    pioneers, 

IOO-IOI. 

Flower,  George,  accompanied  Birk- 
beck and  his  family  on  western  tour, 
193; 

describes:  and  classifies  the  pio- 
neers, 99-100;  attitude  of  pioneers 
toward  books,  169-170;  Carmi,  65; 
development  of  English  settlement, 
110-112;  early  roads,  115;  unhealth- 
fulness of  the  country,  161-162 ; 

description  of  immigrants  of,  109- 
110;  desire  of,  to  locate  on  prairie 
land,  105-107;  Fordham,  cousin  of, 
joined  him  at  Cincinnati,  103  n ; 
plans  to  import  English  laborers, 
136;  purpose  of  Birkbeck  and,  in 
planning  the  English  settlement,  103. 

Flower,   Richard,  describes  profits  in 

raising   stock,    141;    established 

library  at  Albion,  169. 
"A   foe  to   religious  tyranny,"  wrote 

on  election  of  ministers  to  political 

office,  270. 

Fond  du  Lac,  American  Fur  Company 
traded  with  Indians  from,  23. 

Ford,  Mrs.,  Waterloo  laid  out  at  tav- 
ern of,  78. 

Ford,  Thomas,  describes  French  in- 
habitants, 00-91 ;  estimated  French 
population,  89  n ;  lived  in  Monroe 
county,  90. 


338 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Fordham,  Elias,  160;  advice  of,  to 
mechanics,  143 ;  classifies  the 
pioneers,  98-99,  101-102,  140,  142; 
cousin  of  Flower,  joined  him  at  Cin- 
cinnati, 103  n ; 

describes:  desire  of  English  to 
hold  land,  136 ;  founding  of  the  Eng- 
lish settlement,  1 10 ; 

discusses  plans  for  English  settle- 
ment, in;  estimates  population  of 
English  settlement,  108-109;  gives 
reasons  for  ill  health  of  pioneers, 
162;  view  of,  on  the  slavery  question, 

136-137- 
Fordham,  Miss ,  161. 

Forquer,  George,  laid  out  Waterloo  in 
conjunction  with  Cook,  78-79. 

Forsyth,  Thomas,  agent  to  various  In- 
dian tribes,  9; 

describes :  Indian  houses,  5 ;  some 
Indian  customs,  4,  6. 

Foster,  William  P.,  candidate  for  as- 
sociate judge,  304-305;  characteriza- 
tion of,  305 ;  elected  associate  judge, 
305. 

Fox,  see  Sauk  and  Fox. 

Fox  river,  American  Fur  Company's 
traders  in  valley  of,  23 ;  Deschamps' 
brigade  reaches,  33;  Indians  cede 
land  on,  38,  39;  Potawatomi  located 
on,  2. 

France,  Coles  traveled  in,  242;  num- 
ber of  settlers  from,  in  1818,  p.  95. 

Frankfort,  72. 
Frankfort  precinct,  71. 

Franklin  county,  1 18  n,  281 ; 

census :  commissioner  appointed 
in,  238-239 ;  commissioner  noted  loca- 
tion of  settlers  in,  57;  report  for, 
249,  264,  318,  319; 

description  and  population  of,  71- 
72;  establishment  of,  in  1818,  p.  220; 
Harrison  and  Roberts  convention 
delegates  from,  280;  no  county  seat 
in,  60;  one  senator  apportioned  to 


Franklin  (cont.) 

Johnson  county  and,  285;  two  dele- 
gates for  the  constitutional  conven- 
tion apportioned  to,  228.  See  Wil- 
liamson county. 

Frazier's  Ferry,  288. 

French,  102,  192,  211,  280;  agricultural 
methods  of,  91-92;  Birkbeck's  book 
translated  into,  112;  Clark  occupied 
villages  of,  92,  181 ;  description  of, 
89;  desired  suspension  of  the  slav- 
ery article  in  the  ordinance,  184;  ex- 
tent of  settlement  of,  61,  63,  76,  79, 
88,  89 n,  92,  94 n;  find  confederacy  of 
five  Indian  tribes  in  Illinois,  1-2; 
Ford  describes  manners  and  cus- 
toms of,  90-91 ;  founded  town  of 
Cahokia,  79;  influence  on  method  of 
fur  trading,  8,  21-22,  27-28;  Indian 
grants  to,  37 ;  Kinney  accused  of  tak- 
ing command  under,  259 ;  land  claims 
of,  44;  migrated  south  from  Canada, 
88;  number  of,  at  Kaskaskia,  76; 
signers  of  the  petition  of  1807  from 
Randolph  county,  190;  sign  petition 
for  extinction  of  Indian  title,  185; 
speculators  obtained  land  from,  52. 
See  French-Canadians. 

French-Canadians,  30;  Crook's  de- 
scription of,  28;  extent  of  trading 
of,  21 ;  Menard,  299;  number  of, 
forming  early  population,  96;  value 
of  services  of,  16. 

"A  friend  to  an  able  judiciary,"  304. 

"A  friend  to  enquiry,"  opinion  of,  on 
framing  a  constitution,  241 ;  opposed 
to  slavery,  241,  245-246,  247. 

"A  friend  to  equal  justice,"  opinions 
of,  on  taxation,  252-254,  283. 


Galena,  lead  mines  of,  located  in  In- 
dian cession,  38  n. 

Gallatin  county,  139,  228,  281,  289; 
Browne  of,  voted  against  the  repeal 
of  the  indenture  law,  217;  census 


INDEX 


339 


Gallatin  (cont.) 

report  from,  240,  264,  318;  conven- 
tion delegates  from,  voted  on  slavery 
side,  257 ;  Davenport  representative 
from,  203  n ;  description  and  popu- 
lation of,  66-70;  English  counted  in 
census  of,  109;  established  in  1812, 
p.  197 ;  Hardin  lawyer  in,  200 ;  Hub- 
bard,  Jones,  and  White  convention 
delegates  from,  280;  McLean  ex- 
pected to  beat  Bond  in,  295 ;  Morris 
inhabitant  of,  138;  one  senator  ap- 
portioned to,  285 ;  population  of, 
249;  question  in,  over  the  successor 
of  Griswold,  199-200;  Shawneetown 
county  seat  of,  68;  Street  clerk  of 
the  court  of,  200;  two  representa- 
tives assigned  to,  197;  three  dele- 
gates to  the  constitutional  conven- 
tion apportioned  to,  227;  White  of, 
chairman  of  constitution  committee, 
265.  See  Hardin  and  Saline  coun- 
ties and  also  salt  works. 

Gallotin  county,  see  Gallatin  county. 

Card,  Seth,  266;  convention  delegate 
from  Edwards,  280;  representative 
from  Edwards  county,  203 n;  sug- 
gestions of,  for  location  of  capital 
site,  289-290;  voted  against  changes 
in  slavery  article,  280. 

Garrett,  Moses,  tavern  keeper,  72. 

Garretson,  James,  opposed  slavery, 
261  n. 

Gatewood,  ,  cutthroat  of  Mason's 

narrative,  119,  120. 

General  assembly,  action  of  regarding 
capital  seat,  308-310;  adjourned, 
306-307;  Bond's  speech  to,  301-302; 
considers  financial  matters,  310-311; 
convened  by  Bond,  317; 

elects :  justices  of  the  supreme 
court,  304-305 ;  United  States  sena- 
tors, 303-304; 

met  at  Kaskaskia,  301. 

Georgetown  [District  of  Columbia], 
McKenney's  headquarters  at,  18. 


Georgia,  96;  non-English  immigration 
into,  97 ;  number  of  emigrants  from, 
94,  95  J  Tait  senator  from,  228. 

Germans,  125,  133 ;  came  west  under 
Ankeny  and  Kimmel,  102;  character- 
ization of,  102;  influence  of  Birk- 
beck's  book  on,  112;  number  of,  from 
Pennsylvania,  102;  population  of,  in 
territory,  97;  settlement  of,  at 
Brownsville,  102. 

Germany,  Barnsback  from,  103 ;  Coles 
traveled  in,  242;  number  of  settlers 
from,  in  1818,  p.  95. 

Gilbreath,  James,  signed  petition  of 
Randolph  county  in  1807,  p.  190. 

Gilham,     ,     representative     from 

Madison  county,  203  n. 

Golconda  (Lusk's  Ferry),  116,  295, 
297;  county  seat  of  Pope,  70;  road 
from,  to  Shawneetown  supersedes 
old  route  from  Fort  Massac,  114; 
road  to  Kaskaskia,  52,  70,  71,  72. 

Goshen,  177;  location  of,  in  Madison 
county,  83,  143;  merchants  of,  ad- 
vertised merchandise  in  the  Intelli- 
gencer, 144;  Walker  started  on  cir- 
cuit from,  175. 

Goshen  road,  development  of,  114-115; 
settlement  along,  63,  65 ;  Vincennes 
road  joined,  114. 

Goshen  settlement,  see  Goshen. 

Graham,  Richard,  appointed  judge, 
205  n ;  Indian  agent  for  Illinois  ter- 
ritory, 13. 

Grammar  [John],  300;  councilor  from 
Johnson,  217;  voted  for  the  repeal 
of  the  indenture  law,  217. 

Grant,  John,  advertises  merchandise  in 
the  Illinois  Emigrant,  145-146. 

Green  Bay,  American  Fur  Company's 
traders  along  shores  of,  23. 

Green  Bay,  agency  of  Indian  depart- 
ment at,  12-13;  factory  at,  17;  Irwin 


340 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Green  (cent.) 

factor  at,  17;  method  of  conducting 
trade  at,  18;  military  establishment 
at,  12;  proposed  military  post  at,  9. 

Greene  county,  57;  formed  from  part 
of  Madison,  83;  settlement  in,  83. 

Greenville,  Indians  surrendered  land 
at,  in  1795,  P-  37- 

Greenup,  William  C,  forwarded  copy 
of  constitution  to  Clay,  311;  posi- 
tions held  by,  in  Randolph  county, 
263;  secretary  of  the  convention, 
263. 

Griffin,  Anthony,  176. 

Grimberry,  ,  cutthroat  of  Mason's 

narrative,  119. 

Griswold  [Stanley],  Towles  succeeded, 
as  judge,  199-200. 

Gulf  of  Mexico,  easy  access  to,  113. 

Hall,  James,  Jr.,  convention  delegate 
from  Jackson,  257,  280;  voted  for 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280. 

Hamburg,  72. 

Hamilton  county,  extent  of  settlement 
in,  65 ;  formed  from  part  of  White, 
64. 

Hardin,  Jeptha,  Jones  of  Shawnee- 
town  brother-in-law  of,  201 ;  pro- 
posed as  successor  of  Griswold,  200. 

T-Tardin  county,  extent  of  settlement 
in,  67-68; 

formed    from   part   of:     Gallatin, 
66;  Pope,  70. 

"Hardscrabble,"  Conant  and  Mack's 
establishment  at,  27. 

Hargrave,  Willis,  commissioner  at 
Carmi,  143;  convention  delegate 
from  White,  280,  300;  opposed 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280;  rep- 
resentative from  White,  203  n ;  voted 
for  White's  section  on  slavery,  281. 


Harmony,  114. 

Harricane  Fork,  see  Hurricane  creek. 

Harrington's  tavern,  176. 

Harris,  William  Tell,  describes  Shaw- 
neetown,  69-70. 

Harrison  [Isham],  convention  delegate 
from  Franklin,  280;  voted  for 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280. 

Harrison,  Isom,  139,  140. 

Harrison,  William  Henry,  called  con- 
vention which  petitioned  for  the 
suspension  of  slavery  article,  185- 
186;  charges  against,  on  account  of 
the  indenture  law,  192;  Edgar  and 
Morrison  faction  opposed,  185 ;  fa- 
vored indentured  servitude,  186; 
Fisher  and  Menard  followers  of, 
189;  government  survey  ran  along 
purchase  of,  42 ;  governor  of  Indiana 
territory,  184;  increase  in  opposition 
to,  in  1807,  p.  191 ;  Indiana  delegate 
to  congress,  184;  Indians  cede  land 
by  treaties  negotiated  by,  in  1809,  p. 
38;  opinion  of,  on  article  of  slavery, 
315 ;  opposed  Illinois  leaders  in  ac- 
tion for  advance  to  second  grade, 
185;  Parke  friend  of,  elected  dele- 
gate to  congress,  187;  proposed  ad- 
vance to  second  grade,  186;  repre- 
sentative from  Ohio,  312;  secretary 
of  the  northwest  territory,  184;  se- 
cured act  establishing  Indiana  terri- 
tory, 184.  See  Harrison  faction. 

Harrison  faction,  approved  indenture 
act,  186,  187-188;  Bond  leaned  to- 
ward, 197,  202;  characterization  of, 
192-193;  Jones  candidate  of,  in  1808, 
p.  201 ;  opposed  division  of  Indiana, 
188;  petitioned  for  the  repeal  of  the 
slavery  article  in  1805  and  for  ad- 
mission as  a  state,  187-188;  sup- 
ported Michael  Jones  as  delegate  to 
congress  from  Indiana',  191,  201 ; 
supporters  of  the  governor,  185.  See 
also  anti-Harrison  faction. 


INDEX 


341 


Harrisonville,  advertised  as  Carthage, 
78;  county  seat  of  Monroe,  78;  de- 
scription of  tavern  at,  125. 

Hatton  Garden  [London],  109. 

Hay,  John,  resigned  from  the  Indiana 
council,  191;  selected  councilor  of 
Indiana,  187. 

Hay,  Lowry,  commissioner  at  Carmi, 
143- 

Heacock,  Russel  E.,  candidate  against 
Hall  as  convention  delegate  from 
Jackson  county,  257. 

Hendricks  [William],  member  of  con- 
gressional committee  to  consider 
constitution,  312 ;  representative  from 
Indiana,  312. 

Hennepin,  34. 

Hill,  Dr. ,  120. 

Hill,  John,  288. 
Hillsboro,  57,  86. 

Hill's  Ferry,  advertised  as  Carlyle, 
288;  Carlyle  located  at,  82;  descrip- 
tion of  and  location  on  present  site 
of  Carlyle,  288-289;  entered  race  for 
capital  site,  287 ;  Prickett's  interest 
in,  287 ;  resolutions  favoring,  for 
capital  site,  290.  See  also  Carlyle. 

Hill's  Station,  86. 
Horse  creek,  77. 

Houses,  description  of  a  tavern,  125; 
English,  in;  French,  76,  89,  91;  In- 
dian, 5;  pioneer,  131,  178-179. 

Hubbard  [Adolphus  F.],  266;  char- 
acterizes Foster,  305 ;  convention 
delegate  from  Gallatin,  280;  pro- 
posed that  capital  sites  be  examined 
by  commissioners,  290;  voted  for 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280. 

Hubbard,  Gurdon  S.,  ion;  clerk  at 
trading  house  at  mouth  of  Bureau 
river,  34;  employee  of  American 
Fur  Company,  32 ;  narrative  of,  about 
Deschamps'  brigade,  32-35. 


Humphreys,  Edward,  receiver  of  the 
land  office  at  Kaskaskia,  201  n. 

Hunter,  Major ,  155. 

Hunterstown,  see  Upper  Alton. 

Hunter  township,  located  in  Edgar 
county,  61. 

Huron,  Lake,  33;  activity  of  Ameri- 
can Fur  Company  on  east  shore  of, 
23- 

Hurricane,  foundation  of,  70. 

Hurricane  creek,  57,  86,  288. 

"Illinois,"   city  of,   see   Illinoistown. 

Illinois  Indians,  country  named  after 
five  tribes  of  the,  I ;  location  of 
tribes  of,  2.  See  also  Cahokia,  Kas- 
kaskia, Michigamea,  Peoria,  and 
Tamoroa. 

Illinois  Emigrant,  145 ;  commented  on 
banking,  150-152;  established  by 
Eddy  and  the  Kimmels,  172-173. 

Illinois  Herald,  209 ;  issued  in  Kaskas- 
kia, 76;  name  changed  to  Western 
Intelligencer  under  "Daniel  P.  Cook 
and  Co.,"  171 ;  published  by  Duncaa 
171. 

Illinois  Intelligencer,  see  Western  In- 
telligencer. 

Illinois  river,  14,  32,  37,  40,  43 ;  Ameri- 
can Fur  Company  traded  along,  24; 
annuities  paid  Indians  on,  13;  canal 
proposed  from,  to  Lake  Michigan, 
39,  225 ;  Deschamps  supervised  trade 
in  valley  of,  27,  29;  Fort  Clark  on, 
12;  fur  trade  region  in  valley  of,  22, 
25;  Indians  cede  land  on,  38-39;  in- 
fluence of,  on  transportation,  113; 
maple  sugar  exported  from,  22 n; 
Peoria  located  on,  2;  Potawatomi 
located  on,  2;  settlement  in  valley 
of,  83. 

Illinoistown  (East  St.  Louis),  157; 
first  plotted  under  name  Jackson- 


342 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Illinoistown  (cont.) 

ville,  80;  founding  of,  opposite  St. 
Louis,  80-81 ;  road  to,  from  Kaskas- 
kia,  114. 

"Independence,"  opinion  of,  on  slavery, 
248. 

Indiana,  38,  40,  57,  126,  136,  168,  176, 
194,  195,  202,  213,  217,  224,  225,  300, 
319;  American  Fur  Company  ex- 
tends activity  to,  23 ;  Birkbeck's  rea- 
sons for  not  locating  in,  103-105 ; 
Bond  in  legislature  of,  295;  Bond's 
activity  in,  197;  choice  locations  in, 
bought  up,  93 ;  connection  of  slavery 
issue  with  the  division  of,  184-192; 
constitution  patterned  after  that  of, 
269,  276,  282,  283,  284;  delegate  to 
congress  and  councilors  elected  by 
the  people  in,  207 ;  enabling  act  of, 
served  as  model  for  territory,  221- 
222;  English  located  in,  no;  faction 
in  eastern,  opposed  to  slavery,  187; 
government  survey  ran  along  line 
of,  42;  Hendricks  representative 
from,  312;  indenture  law  passed  in, 
186-188 ;  issues  in,  from  1800  to  1809, 
p.  184-192 ;  law  of  indentured  servi- 
tude of,  carried  into  the  territory 
with  the  other  laws,  214-215;  Loui- 
siana placed  under,  186 ;  Menard  rep- 
resented Randolph  in  legislature  of, 
299;  Menard's  and  Fisher's  activity 
in  politics  of,  202;  non-English  im- 
migration into,  97;  number  of  emi- 
grants from,  94,  95;  petitions  to  be 
admitted  as  a  state,  188-189 ;  pioneers 
from,  101 ;  Potawatomi  cede  land  in, 
39;  Princeton  located  in,  106;  pro- 
vision relating  to  slavery  in  consti- 
tution of,  278-279,  314,  315;  question 
of  slavery  in,  238;  reaches  second 
grade,  187-188;  resolutions  favoring 
division  of,  accepted  in  1808,  p.  191- 
192;  territory  of,  established  with 
Harrison  as  governor,  184;  Thomas 
and  Jones  candidates  as  delegates  to 
congress  from,  201 ;  western  counties 


Indiana  (cont.) 

of,  wanted  slavery  article  repealed, 
185. 

Indians,  agriculture  of,  8;  British  in- 
fluence among,  9-1 1;  crops  of,  4; 
danger  from,  to  public  roads,  119; 
dependence  of,  on  traders,  8-9 ;  dress 
of,  4-5 ;  extent  of  American  Fur 
Company's  trade  among,  23-24;  fac- 
tory system  affects,  15-22;  hostility 
of,  toward  Americans,  ion;  houses 
of,  5;  influenced  by  fur  traders,  20; 
kinds  of  goods  traded  with,  29-30; 
land  cessions  from,  I ;  location  of 
tribes  of,  2;  manufactures  of,  5; 
method  of  trading  with,  30-32;  mili- 
tary posts  to  be  established  among, 
9-10,  12;  organization  of  department 
of,  12-15 ,'  peace  established  between 
United  States  and,  9;  people  of  Illi- 
nois country  wanted  title  of,  extin- 
guished, 185;  phratries  of  the  Blacks 
and  Whites  of,  6-7;  population  of 
tribes  of,  2-3;  possessions  of,  in 
Crawford  county,  60 ;  presence  of,  in 
Indiana,  105;  religion  of,  7-8;  retard 
survey  of  bounty  lands,  43;  title  of, 
to  land  in  Madison  county,  83; 
trade  of,  at  Fort  Edwards,  18;  tribal 
organization  of,  5-6,  8.  See  Cahokia, 
Chippewa,  Kaskaskia,  Kickapoo,  Me- 
nominee,  Michigamea,  Ottawa, 
Peoria,  Potawatomi,  .Sauk  and  Fox, 
Tamaroa,  and  Winnebago. 

Intelligencer,  see  Western  Intelligencer. 

Ireland,  number  of  settlers  from,  in 
1818,  p.  94 ;  Reynolds  from,  103. 

Irwin,  Mathew,  factor  at  Green  Bay, 
17. 


Jackson  county,  Brownsville  county 
seat  of,  74;  census  commissioner 
appointed  in,  238;  census  report 
from,  264,  318;  convention  delegates 
voted  on  slavery  side,  257;  Davis 
representative  from,  203  n ;  delegates 


INDEX 


343 


Jackson  (cont.) 

from,  admitted  to  the  convention, 
263;  description  and  population  of, 
74-75;  establishment  of,  220;  Ger- 
man settlement  in,  102 ;  Hall  conven- 
tion delegate  from,  280;  names  of 
convention  delegates  reported  by 
July  15,  p.  260;  one  senator  appor- 
tioned to,  285 ;  purchases  in,  52 ;  two 
delegates  for  the  constitutional  con- 
vention apportioned  to,  228;  Will 
convention  delegate  from,  257;  Wil- 
son clerk  and  recorder  of,  305.  See 
also  Perry  county. 

Jacksonville,  see  Illinoistown. 

Jasper  county,  57;  formed  from  part 
of  Crawford,  60;  settlement  in,  61. 

Jefferson  [Thomas],  slavery  compact 
of,  with  Lemen,  319. 

Jefferson  county,  130;  extent  of  set- 
tlement in,  63,  65; 

formed   from  part  of:     Edwards, 
62;  White,  64. 

Jena  [Saxony],  Birkbeck's  book  pub- 
lished in,  112. 

Jersey  county,  57,  84;  formed  from 
part  of  Madison,  82;  settlement  in, 
83- 

Johnson,  John  W.,  factor  at  Prairie 
du  Chien,  17. 

Johnson,  Richard  M.,  Edwards  asks 
cooperation  of,  196;  member  of  the 
committee  considering  the  memorial 
for  statehood,  221 ;  representative 
from  Kentucky,  221. 

Johnson  county,  census  report  from, 
264,  311  n,  318;  convention  delegates 
from,  voted  on  antislavery  side, 
256;  county  seat  changed  from  El- 
vira to  Vienna,  71 ;  description  and 
population  of,  70-71 ;  established  in 
1812,  p.  197;  Grammar  of,  voted  for 
the  repeal  of  the  indenture  law,  217; 
M'Fatridge  and  West  delegates 
from,  280;  one  representative  as- 


Johnson  (cont.) 

signed  to,  197;  one  senator  appor- 
tioned to  Franklin  county  and,  285; 
Palmer  representative  from,  203 n; 
two  delegates  for  the  constitutional 
convention  apportioned  to,  228.  See 
Massac,  Pulaski,  and  Union  counties. 

Jones,  Enoch,  156. 

Jones,  John  Rice,  joined  opposition  to 
Harrison,  191 ;  signed  petition  for 
repeal  of  slavery  article  in  1800,  p. 
185;  son  of,  elected  representative 
from  Randolph  county,  in  1808,  p. 
191. 

Jones,  Michael  (Kaskaskia),  candidate 
for  United  States  senate,  303;  con- 
fusion of,  with  Jones  of  Shawnee- 
town,  201  n ;  convention  delegate 
from  Gallatin,  280 ;  defeated  as  dele- 
gate to  congress  from  Indiana,  191- 
192;  member  of  the  anti-Edwards 
faction,  201,  291 ;  opposed  to  specu- 
lation, 291;  register  of  the  land  of- 
fice at  Kaskaskia,  191 ;  voted  for 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280. 

Jones,  Michael  (Shawneetown),  con- 
fusion of,  with  Jones  of  Kaskaskia, 
201  n ;  lawyer  at  Shawneetown,  half 
brother  of  Thomas,  and  brother-in- 
law  of  Hardin,  201 ;  member  of  the 
anti-Edwards  faction,  201. 

Jones,  Rice,  elected  representative  of 
Randolph  county,  in  1808,  p.  191 ; 
son  of  John  Rice  Jones,  191. 

Jonesboro,  county  seat  of  Union 
county,  72. 

Jordan,  Thomas,  117. 

Jouett,  Charles,  controlled  Indian  af- 
fairs at  Chicago,  13 ;  refused  license 
to  French-Canadian  trader,  16. 


Kaintuck,  see  Kentucky. 

Kane,  Elias  K.,  270,  273,  275,  276,  284, 
305 ;    Breese    student    in    office   of, 


344 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Kane  (cont.) 

266  n;  candidate  for  the  convention 
from  Randolph  county,  232;  chair- 
man of  committee  on  census  returns, 
263-264;  constitution  reported  writ- 
ten in  office  of,  266 n;  convention 
delegate  from  Randolph,  280;  ex- 
pected election  to  convention,  257; 
friend  of  McLean,  201 ;  influence  of, 
202,  265,  302-303,  304;  lawyer  at  Kas- 
kaskia,  200;  leader,  with  Thomas,  of 
the  anti-Edwards  faction,  200,  201, 
206,  291 ;  member  of  committees  of 
revision  and  enrollments,  268;  op- 
posed to  speculation,  291 ;  presented 
petitions  from  Covenanters,  266-267; 
received  query  about  speculation, 
156-157;  secretary  of  state,  202,  302; 
suggestions  of,  relative  to  capital 
site,  289,  290;  voted  for  changes  in 
slavery  article,  280. 

Kankakee  river,  29;  American  Fur 
Company's  employees  on,  27;  In- 
dians cede  land  on,  39;  Potawatomi 
located  on,  2. 

Kaskaskia  (Kaskaskies,  Kascasky), 
13,  88,  115,  117,  118,  119,  124,  152, 
155,  156,  158,  162,  181,  214,  220,  303, 
320;  acreage  of  land  office  sales  in 
district  of,  49-51 ;  advertisements  of 
merchandise  in  stores  in,  144;  an- 
ticipation at,  of  prospects  of  state- 
hood, 231;  attracts  settlers,  102; 
bank  of  Cairo  located  temporarily 
at,  74;  Bond  receiver  of  the  land 
office  at,  202;  boundary  and  area  of 
district  of,  44-45;  Breese  student  in 
Kane's  office  at,  266 n;  Cahokia  rival 
of,  79;  capital  of  territory,  58,  75; 
celebrations  in,  164,  232,  292-293 ; 
Check  advertised  school  in,  166; 
Coles  visited  at  time  of  the  conven- 
tion, 242;  constitution  printed  at, 
311 ;  constitutional  convention  assem- 
bled at,  262;  Cook  returned  to,  209- 
210;  Cross  advertised  school  in,  166- 
167;  description  and  location  of,  58- 


Kaskaskia  (cont) 

60,  75-77;  destroyed  by  Mississippi 
river  flood,  77 ;  discussion  of  moving 
the  capital  from,  286-292;  Dodge 
lawyer  in,  304;  Edwards  advertised 
from,  153;  general  assembly  met  at, 
212,  317;  Humphreys  receiver  of  the 
land  office  at,  201  n ;  importance  of 
roads  to,  116;  insufficient  appropri- 
ations for  road  from  Shawneetown 
to,  118-119;  Jones  register  of  the 
land  office  at,  191,  201 ;  Kane  lawyer 
at,  200 ;  land  office  at,  58,  75 ;  land  on 
Mississippi  attached  to  land  district 
of,  43;  made  capital  site  for  twenty 
years,  291;  Menard  lived  at,  15,  299; 
Morrison  lived  at,  303;  newspaper 
established  at,  by  Duncan,  171 ;  pe- 
titions from  inhabitants  of,  for  ex- 
tention  of  suffrage,  196;  population 
of,  3J  postal  routes  from,  126-127; 
preemption  rights  granted  in  district 
of,  47-48;  proposal  to  retain  capital 
at,  290-291 ;  proposed  addition  adver- 
tised by  Edwards,  154;  William 
Reynolds  a  physician  in,  299-300; 
Reynolds  visited  at  time  of  general 
assembly,  304; 

road  to:  Edwardsville,  115;  Fort 
Massac,  114;  Golconda,  52,  70,  71, 
72;  Illinoistown,  114;  Shawneetown, 
52,  67,  71 ;  St.  Louis,  77 ;  Vincennes, 
81,  115; 

travel  improved  between  Shawnee- 
town and,  117;  tribe  of,  located  near 
town  of,  2;  two  general  courts  a 
year  held  at,  205;  value  of  Indian 
presents  sent  to,  14;  Watson  car- 
ried mail  and  passengers  from,  to 
St.  Louis,  127-128.  See  land  offices. 

Kaskaskia  Indians,  39;  annuity  paid 
to,  13;  location  of,  near  town  of,  2; 
surrendered  land  at  Vincennes  in 
1803,  p.  37- 

Kaskaskia  river  (Okaw),  2,  37,  40,  57, 
76,  77,  86,  118,  128,  287,  290,  291,  310; 
consideration  of  capital  sites  on, 
289;  Donaldson  located  on,  308;  ex- 


INDEX 


345 


Kaskaskia  (cont.) 

tent  of  settlement  between  Missis- 
sippi river  and,  58;  Hill's  Ferry  lo- 
cated on,  288;  influence  of,  on  trans- 
portation, 113;  land  purchases  along, 
52 ;  Pope's  Bluff  located  on,  87,  289 ; 
proposed  capital  sites  on,  309;  set- 
tlement along,  61,  75,  81. 

Kascasky,  see  Kaskaskia. 

Kennerley,  James,  managed  trade  at 
St.  Louis,  18. 

Kennerly,  ,  156. 

Kentucky,  69,  70,  102,  120,  128,  135, 
137,  138,  150,  168;  Anderson  repre- 
sentative from,  312;  arrival  of  fac- 
tory goods  from,  147;  Barnsback 
lived  in,  103 ;  Browne  from,  201 ; 
choice  locations  in,  bought  up,  93; 
comments  in,  on  the  passage  of  the 
Illinois  enabling  act,  232 ;  Cook  from, 
194;  cost  of  seed  corn  in,  178;  con- 
stitution patterned  after  that  of,  269, 
271  n,  275,  283 ;  Crittenden  senator 
from,  229;  Cullom  from,  300;  Ed- 
wards chief  justice  of  the  court  of 
appeals  of,  193 ;  emigrants  from,  94, 
95,  96,  101 ;  Flower  at  Shelby's,  gov- 
ernor of,  106;  furnished  funds  for 
Edwardsville  bank,  148;  Hardin 
from,  200;  Johnson  representative 
of,  196,  221;  McLean  from,  200; 
non-English  immigration  into,  97; 
number  of  banks  incorporated  in, 
148;  Pope  from,  193;  Reynolds 
from,  299;  Stephenson  from,  194; 
Talbot  senator  from,  228,  229; 
To  .vies  from,  200. 

Kentucky  Argus,  232. 

Kickapoo,  annuity  paid  to,  13;  cede 
land  in  1809,  p.  38 ;  cede  land  in  1819 
and  move  west  of  Mississippi,  39; 
Clark  to  conclude  treaty  with,  9; 
gentes  of,  6;  location  of,  2,  3;  popu- 
lation of,  3. 

Kimmel,  Peter,  established  the  Illinois 
Emigrant  in  conjunction  with  Eddy, 


Kimmel  (cont.) 

172-173;    printer    from    Pittsburgh, 
172.    See  Eddy  and  Kimmel. 

Kimmel,  Singleton,  led  Germans  west, 
102. 

King  [Rufus],  senator  from  New 
York  voted  in  favor  of  postponing 
the  passage  of  the  enabling  act,  228. 

Kinney,  Andey,  accusations  against,  as 
convention  delegate,  259. 

Kinney,  William,  elected  state  senator 
from  St.  Clair  county,  301 ;  opposed 
slavery,  261  n. 

Kinzie,  James,  American  Fur  Company 
trader  at  Chicago,  27. 

Kirkpatrick,  Thomas,  convention  dele- 
gate from  Madison,  280;  Edwards- 
ville laid  out  on  land  of,  84 ;  opposed 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280 ;  voted 
against  striking  out  section  two  of 
slavery  article,  281. 

Kitchell,  Joseph,  candidate  for  asso- 
ciate judge,  305;  convention  delegate 
from  Crawford,  262  n,  280;  moved 
change  in  capital  site,  289;  senator 
from  Crawford  county,  305 ;  voted 
for  changes  in  slavery  article,  280. 

Knight's  prairie,  65. 

Knox  county,  Indiana:  Harrison's 
following  in,  185;  Jones  representa- 
tive from,  191 ;  petition  from,  oppos- 
ing division,  192;  voted  for  advance 
to  second  grade,  187; 

Northwest    territory:     territory 
about  Vincennes  in  1788,  p.  183. 


Lachine,  Hubbard  left,  32. 
La  Compte,  Pierre,  tavern  keeper,  77. 
La  Croix,  "Mitchell,"  nn. 
Laducier,  Jean  Baptiste,  155. 

La   Motte's   prairie,   Palestine   located 
on,  62. 


346 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


La  Motte  township,  in  Crawford 
count}',  61. 

Land  offices,  acreage  of  the  sales 
conducted  by,  49-52;  began  sale  of 
land  in  1814,  p.  44,  49 ;  boundaries 
and  areas  of  the  three  offices  in  ter- 
ritory, 45;  Edwardsville,  44,  58,  84, 
85,  143,  194,  301  n ;  Kaskaskia,  44, 
75.  76,  191,  201,  202;  manager  of 
salt  works  complained  to,  of  intrud- 
ers on  reservation,  67 ;  method  of 
conducting  public  land  sales  through, 
44-45 ;  Palestine,  62 ;  Shawneetown, 
44  53,  67,  69-70,  200;  towns  of, 
attract  settlers,  102;  Vincennes,  44; 
warrants  issued  at  general,  for 
bounty  lands,  43. 

Law,  John,  opinion  of  McLean's  popu- 
larity, 296  n. 

Lawrence,  James,  discusses  plans  for 
settlement,  no-iu  ;  led  one  of  Flow- 
er's parties,  109. 

Lawrence  county,  extent  of  settlement 
in,  61,  63 ; 

formed  from  part  of :  Crawford, 
60;  Edwards,  62; 

French  settlements  in,  89. 

Lemen,  James,  132;  activity  of,  in 
Baptist  church,  131,  319;  convention 
delegate  from  St.  Clair,  280;  from 
Virginia,  319;  member  of  commit- 
tee of  revision,  268 ;  opposed  to  slav- 
ery, 261  n,  320 ;  slavery  compact  of, 
with  Jefferson,  319;  voted  against 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280. 

Lemon,  James,  see  Lemen. 
Lexington  [Ky.],  128. 
Little  Cape  Gris,  83. 
Little  Muddy  river,   116,  124. 
Little  Wabash  Company,   158. 

Little  Wabash  river,  in,  157;  bridge 
to  be  built  over,  at  Carmi,  143 ;  ex- 
tent of  settlement  along,  64,  65,  67; 
influence  of,  on  transportation,  113; 


Little  (cont.) 

land  between,  and  Bon  Pas  creek 
selected  for  English  settlement,  63, 
103 ;  purchases  along,  52. 

Lippincott,  Reverend  Thomas,  visted 
Alton,  85. 

Livermore  [Arthur],  representative 
from  New  Hampshire,  315 ;  re- 
quested vote  on  constitution,  315. 

Livingston  county,  138. 

Lockwood,  James  H.,  describes  fur 
trader,  28. 

Lofton  [John  G.],  councilor  from 
Madison,  217;  voted  for  the  repeal 
of  the  indenture  law,  217. 

London  [England],  161,  209;  Birk- 
beck's  book  published  in,  108,  112; 
settlers  from,  for  English  settlement, 
109. 

Long,  Major  Stephen  H.,  83. 

Louisiana  territory,  anti-Harrison  fac- 
tion petitions  union  of  Illinois  coun- 
try with,  186;  bounty  lands  reserved 
in,  43  >  placed  under  Indiana  terri- 
tory temporarily,  186. 

Louisville,  70,  114. 

Lower   Alton,   85. 

Lusk  Creek,  70. 

Lusk's  Ferry,  see  Golconda. 

Lynchburg  Press,  129. 

McFarland,  James,  49  n. 

McFerron  [John],  candidate  as  dele- 
gate to  convention  from  Randolph, 
257;  defeated  Fisher  for  state  sena- 
torship,  300. 

McClure's  tavern,  78. 

McHenry,  William,  commissioner  at 
Carmi,  143 ;  convention  delegate 
from  White,  280;  opposed  changes 
in  slavery  article,  280;  voted  for 
White's  eection  on  slavery,  281. 


INDEX 


347 


McKenney,  Thomas,  directed  purchase 
of  supplies  for  factories,  18;  opin- 
ion of,  of  British  influence  at  Chi- 
cago, 20;  superintendent  of  Indian 
trade,  14,  18. 

McLean,  John,  appearance  of,  in  con- 
gress, 311;  appointed  representative 
to  congress,  158,  298,  316;  Cook's 
opinion  of  prospects  of,  295-296;  fa- 
vored slavery,  297;  friend  of  Kane, 
201 ;  Law's  opinion  of  popularity  of, 
296  n ;  lawyer  at  Shawneetown,  201 ; 
member  of  the  anti-Edwards  fac- 
tion, 201,  294;  race  of,  for  congress, 
294-298. 

McLeansboro,  65. 

M'Fatridge,    W[illiam],    convention 

delegate   from  Johnson,  280;  voted 

against   changes   in   slavery   article, 

280. 

M'Nabb,  Archibald,  tavern  keeper,  77. 
M'Night, ,  advertised  lots  in  Har- 

risonville,  78. 
Mack  [Stephen],  see  Conant  and  Mack. 

Mackinac,  agency  of  Indian  depart- 
ment at,  12;  Crooks  virtual  head- 
quarters at,  25;  depot  for  northwest 
fur  trade,  25;  Deschamps'  brigade 
at,  33,  34;  Hubbard  arrived  at,  32; 
interest  of  traders'  annual  voyage 
to,  29;  military  establishment  at,  12; 
Puthuff  agent  at,  10,  26;  trading 
house  at,  before  war  of  1812,  p.  17. 

Mackinac  Island,  American  Fur  Com- 
pany's headquarters  in  northwest, 
24-25. 

Macoupin  county,  57;  formed  from 
part  of  Madison,  82;  settlement  in, 
83-84. 

Macoupin  creek,  settlement  along,  83, 
84. 

Madison  [James],  Coles  private  sec- 
retary to,  242. 

Madison  county,  57,  163,  228,  281,  284, 
309;  Borough,  Prickett,  and  Stephen- 


Madison  (cont.) 

son  convention  delegates  from,  280; 
Cadwell  elected  to  legislature  from, 
300;  Cadwell  state  senator  from, 
300;  census  report  of,  240,  260,  264, 
318,  319;  conditions  in,  for  raising 
stock,  141;  convention  candidates 
of,  opposed  to  slavery,  256;  Cook's 
interest  in  land  in,  154;  delegation 
from,  desirous  of  extension  of  fran- 
chise, 285;  demand  for  roads  in,  114; 
description  and  population  of,  82-86; 
Edwards  established  in  1812,  p.  84, 
197;  Edwardsville  county  seat  of, 
84,  143;  Gilham  representative  from, 
203 n;  large  land  holdings  in,  51; 
Lofton  voted  for  the  repeal  of  the 
indenture  law,  217;  names  of  con- 
vention delegates  reported  by  July 
15,  p.  260;  one  representative  as- 
signed to,  197;  one  senator  appor- 
tioned to,  285;  opposed  to  slavery, 
261 ;  opposition  in,  to  Bond  in  favor 
of  Reavis,  299;  subscriptions  from, 
to  the  Edwardsville  bank,  148;  three 
delegates  to  the  constitutional  con- 
vention apportioned  to,  227.  See 
Calhoun,  Greene,  Jersey,  and  Ma- 
coupin counties. 

Madison,  Fort,  trading  house  at,  be- 
fore war  of  1812,  p.  17. 

Maiden,  British  distribute  presents  at, 
10,  13. 

Mangham  [John  K.],  convention  dele- 
gate from  Washington,  267;  death 
of,  267. 

Manufactures,  extent  of,  among  pio- 
neers, 131-134;  Indian,  5;  of  Kas- 
kaskia,  76;  pioneers  preferred  their 
own,  146;  trade  encouraged  by  east- 
ern, 147. 

Marietta,  seat  of  government  of  the 
northwest  territory,  183. 

Marion  county,  extent  of  settlement 
in,  62-63 ; 

formed   from  part  of:  Crawford, 
60;  Edwards,  62. 


348 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Marston,  Major  Morrell,  commander 
at  Fort  Armstrong,  21 ;  comment  of, 
on  life  of  Indians,  3;  describes 
crops  of  Sauk  and  Fox,  4;  reports 
attitude  of  Indians  toward  factory 
system,  21. 

Maryland,  number  of  emigrants  from, 
94.  95.  96;  Reed  representative  from, 
315 ;  Sprigg  in,  204. 

Mary's  river,  153. 

Mason,  James,  advertises  for  labor- 
ers, 143. 

Mason,  Richard  Lee,  78,  80;  describes 
experiences  on  an  early  road,  119- 
123;  describes  towns  near  Alton,  85. 

Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  number  of 
settlers  from  south  of,  95. 

Massac  county,  formed  from  part  of: 
Johnson,  70;  Pope,  70. 

Massac,  Fort,  route  between  Kaskas- 
kia  and,  114. 

Massachusetts,  number  of  emigrants 
from,  04;  Whitman  representative 
from,  221. 

Matheny,  Charles  R.,  candidate  for 
associate  judge,  305 ;  circuit  attor- 
ney of  the  first  district,  305;  op- 
posed concessions  to  the  judges,  205 ; 
representative  from  St.  Clair  county, 
203  n ;  signed  address  against  slavery, 
261  n ;  stood  for  the  repeal  of  the 
indenture  law,  216-217. 

Meachan, ,  155. 

Meigs,  ,  155. 

Meisenheimer  precinct,  73. 

Menard,  Pierre,  Cullom  and  Reynolds 
had  no  chance  for  lieutenant  gover- 
norship against,  300;  elected  lieuten- 
ant governor,  299;  expected  to  be 
the  lieutenant  governor,  286;  favored 
advance  to  second  grade,  187; 
Frenchman,  92;  political  activity  of, 
202;  refused  to  join  any  faction, 
206;  representative  of  Randolph 


Menard  (cont.) 

county,  202;  resigned  from  the  In- 
diana council,  191 ;  selected  coun- 
cilor of  Indiana,  187;  signed  peti- 
tions in  1805  and  1807,  p.  188,  190; 
sub-agent  at  Kaskaskia,  13,  15;  voted 
against  the  repeal  of  the  indenture 
law,  217. 

Menominee,  Clark  to  conclude  treaty 
with,  9. 

Messenger,  John,  see  Messinger. 
Messick,  Dr.  ,  176. 

Messinger,  John,  270;  comments  on 
religious  observances,  179;  conven- 
tion delegate  from  St.  Clair,  280; 
elected  to  state  legislature  from  St. 
Clair,  300;  interested  in  speculation, 
291 ;  member  of  Edwards  faction, 
291 ;  representative  from  St.  Clair 
county,  1808,  p.  191 ;  voted  for 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280.  See 
also  "Pope,  Messenger  and  Stephen- 
son." 

Methodists,  extent  of  influence  of, 
173 ;  influence  of,  spread  under  the 
leadership  of  Cartwright  and  Walker, 
175-179. 

Metropolis,  71. 

Miami  river,  10. 

Michigamea,  disappearance  of,  as  dis- 
tinct tribe,  2. 

Michigan,  Lake,  10,  30,  33,  38,  40,  183, 
222 ;  American  Fur  Company's  trad- 
ers on  shores  of,  23;  made  part  of 
the  eastern  boundary,  225 ;  proposed 
canal  between  Illinois  river  and,  39, 
225. 

Michigan    territory,    12,    229;    bounty 

land  reserved  in,  43 ;  Cass  governor 

of,  9. 

Middle  Alton,  85. 
Milton,  descriptions  of,  85-86. 
Milwaukee,    American    Fur    Company 

traded  with  Indians  from,  23;  Beau- 

bien  transferred  from,  27. 


INDEX 


349 


Minnesota  river  (St.  Peter's),  Ameri- 
can Fur  Company's  traders  in  valley 
of,  23. 

Miotte,  Jacques,  155. 

Mississippi,  213 ;  Poindexter  represent- 
ative from,  311. 

Mississippi  river,  10,  15,  16,  18,  22,  32, 
37,  38,  43,  44,  57,  7O,  76,  79,  84,  85, 
105,  H3,  153,  156,  175,  176,  288; 
American  Fur  Company  traded  along 
shores  of,  23;  Comegys  held  land 
on,  73;  destroyed  Kaskaskia,  77; 
extensive  land  purchases  along,  51 ; 
extent  of  American  bottom  along, 
128; 

extent  of  settlement :  along,  72,  74, 
75,  78,  82,  83;  between  Kaskaskia 
river  and,  58; 

Farnham  opens  up  trade  west  of, 
26;  French  crews  on,  90;  French 
pioneers  settled  along,  88;  fur  trade 
on,  25 ;  government  survey  started 
on,  near  Alton,  42;  Illinoistown 
located  on,  80;  Kickapoo  move  west 
of,  39;  mail  carried  on,  126;  Sauk 
and  Fox  located  on,  2;  steamboat 
traffic  on,  114;  survey  of  land  east 
of,  40. 

Missouri  river,  82,  289;  American  Fur 
Company  extends  activity  to,  23. 

Missouri  territory,  66,  69,  167,  176,  222, 
244,  288,  312;  American  Fur  Com- 
pany traded  with  Indians  in,  24; 
asks  for  better  postal  service,  127; 
banks  incorporated  in,  148;  bounty 
lands  reserved  in,  43 ;  Clark  governor 
of,  9;  emigration  into,  93;  first  peti- 
tions for  statehood  received  from, 
230;  importance  of  Illinois  becoming 
a  state  before,  221 ;  increase  of  popu- 
lation due  to  toleration  of  slavery 
in,  140;  mail  to,  carried  down  the 
Ohio,  126;  merchants  of,  advertised 
merchandise  in  the  Intelligencer,  144 ; 
non-English  immigration  into,  97; 
Peck  characterizes  educational  condi- 
tions in,  165 ;  petitions  circulated  for 


Missouri  (cont.) 

union  of  territory  with,  215 ;  prosper- 
ity of,  due  to  existence  of  slavery  in, 
215;  Scott  delegate  from,  127,  230; 
surveyor-general  appointed  for,  42; 
Tallmadge  opposed  to  admission  of, 
318;  trade  to  be  extended  to,  26. 

Monroe  county,  70,  281 ;  accusations 
against  Kinney  as  convention  dele- 
gate from,  259;  Cairns  and  Moore 
convention  delegates  from,  280;  cen- 
sus report  from,  318;  description  and 
population  of,  78-79;  establishment 
of,  220;  Ford  lived  in,  90;  formed 
from  part  of  St.  Clair,  79 ;  Harrison- 
ville  county  seat  of,  78;  Lemen 
inhabitant  of,  131 ;  Mordock  repre- 
sentative from,  203;  names  of  con- 
vention delegates  reported  by  July  15, 
p.  260;  one  senator  apportioned  to, 
285 ;  opposed  to  slavery,  261 ;  two 
delegates  for  the  constitutional  con- 
vention apportioned  to,  228;  Water- 
loo located  in,  71  n. 

Montgomery  county,  57;  extent  of 
settlement  in,  86-87 ;  formed  from 
part  of  Bond,  86. 

Montreal,  10  n,  25,  28,  32;  American 
Fur  Company  depot  at,  24 ;  influence 
of  trading  firms  of,  23. 

Moore,  Enoch,  117;  convention  dele- 
gate from  Monroe,  280;  opposed 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280;  voted 
against  striking  out  section  two  of 
the  slavery  article,  281. 

Moore,  Risdon,  member  of  legislature 
from  St.  Clair,  300;  opposed  slav- 
ery, 261  n. 

Moore,  William,  census  commissioner 
in  St.  Clair,  239. 

Moore's  prairie,  extent  of  settlement 
on,  64. 

Mordock,    John,    representative    from 

Monroe  county,  203  n. 
Morrice,  John,  see  John  Morris. 


350 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Morris,  John,  indenture  of  negro  girl 
Silvey  bought  by,  136-140. 

Morrison,  Robert,  candidate  for  United 
States  senator,  303;  census  estimate 
of,  190;  clerk  of  court  at  Kaskaskia, 
303;  laid  out  town  of  Donaldson, 
308;  member  of  the  Vincennes  con- 
vention, 186;  signed  petition  for  the 
repeal  of  the  slavery  article  in  1800, 
p.  185. 

Morrison,  William,  bought  up  private 
holdings,  52;  laid  out  town  of  Don- 
aldson, 308;  land  speculator,  52;  not 
member  of  the  Vincennes  conven- 
tion, 186;  signed  petition  for  the 
repeal  of  the  slavery  article  in  1796 
and  1800,  p.  185;  signed  petition  of 
charges  against  Harrison,  192.  See 
also  anti-Harrison  faction. 

Morrow  [Jeremiah],  opinion  of,  on 
educational  provision,  229;  senator 
of  Ohio  opposed  postponing  the  pass- 
age of  the  enabling  act,  228. 

Morse,  Samuel  G.,  convention  delegate 
from  Bond,  280;  voted  for  changes 
in  slavery  article,  280. 

Mt.  Carmel,  founded  in  1818,  p.  64. 

Mt.  Vernon,  63. 

Muddy  river,  118. 

Mud  lake,  33. 

Murphysboro,  rival  of  Brownsville,  75. 

"Nemo,"  writing  of,  in  Intelligencer, 
157-158. 

New  Design,  location  of,  78;  Lemen 
founded,  319;  slavery  prohibited  in, 
3IQ. 

New  England,  159;  arrival  of  factory 
goods  from,  147;  number  of  emi- 
grants from,  94,  95,  101 ;  opposition 
from  representatives  of,  to  Illinois 
constitution,  315. 

New  Hampshire,  Livermore  represent- 
ative from,  315;  number  of  emi- 
grants from,  94. 


New  Harmony,  106. 

New  Haven  county,  foundation  of,  67. 

New  Jersey,  number  of  emigrants 
from,  94;  opposition  of  representa- 
tives from,  to  Illinois  constitution, 
315. 

New  Orleans,  105,  156;  steamboat  con- 
nection with,  114. 

New  York,  constitution  patterned  after 
that  of,  271  n,  274-275 ;  Kane  born 
in,  200;  King  and  Sanford  senators 
from,  228;  number  of  emigrants 
from,  94;  opposition  of  representa- 
tives from,  to  Illinois  constitution, 
315 ;  Spencer  representative  from, 
221 ;  Tallmadge  representative  from, 
313;  Taylor  representative  from,  226. 

New  York  City,  320;  advertisement  of 
merchandise  received  from,  144; 
American  Fur  Company  headquar- 
ters at,  24;  arrival  in,  of  Flower's 
parties,  109 ;  furnished  funds  for  the 
Edwardsville  bank,  148;  Illinois  con- 
nected with,  by  water,  225. 

Nicholls,  ,  128. 

North  Carolina,  non-English  immigra- 
tion into,  97;  number  of  emigrants 
from,  94,  95,  96. 

Northwest  Company,  activity  of,  22- 
23;  owned  by  British,  22. 

Northwest  ordinance,  see  Ordinance 
of  1787. 

Northwest  territory,  Bond  represented 
St.  Clair  county  in  legislature  of, 
184;  Edgar  represented  Randolph 
county  in  legislature  of,  184;  Harri- 
son delegate  to  congress  from,  184; 
organization  of,  under  the  ordinance, 
181-184;  territory  of  Indiana  created 
in,  184. 


Ogle,   Jacob,   opposes    slavery,   261  n. 
Oglesby,  Joshua,  opposes  slavery,  261  n. 


INDEX 


351 


Ohio,  102  n,  137,  142,  168,  213;  Birk- 
beck's  reasons  for  not  locating  in, 
103-105 ;  choice  locations  in,  bought 
up,  93;  constitution  patterned  after 
that  of,  269,  273,  279,  282,  283,  314; 
Dearborn  county  petitioned  to  be 
joined  to  189;  Harrison  representa- 
tive from,  312;  Illinois  connected 
with,  by  water,  225 ;  Morrow  senator 
from,  228;  number  of  banks  incor- 
porated in,  148 ;  number  of  emigrants 
from,  94,  95,  96;  prohibition  of  slav- 
ery in  constitution  of,  278-279 ;  ques- 
tion of  slavery  in,  238;  salt  works  in, 
116,  311;  territory  employed  system 
of  surveys  worked  out  in,  40. 

Ohio  river,  i,  37,  58,  72,  82,  105,  115, 
116,  136,  137,  140,  149,  172,  176,  183, 
288,  289;  choice  sites  on,  bought  up, 
104;  Comegys  held  land  on,  73;  ex- 
tent of  settlement  along,  67-68,  70, 
71 ;  extent  of  speculation  along 
lower,  52,  73-74;  floods  of,  delay 
mails,  126;  French  crews  on,  90;  in- 
fluence of,  on  transportation,  113; 
number  of  settlers  from  south  of, 
95 ;  mail  carried  down  for  the  west- 
ern settlements,  126;  organization  of 
the  territory  northwest  of,  under  the 
ordinance,  181-184;  speculators 
bought  land  on,  50 ;  steamboat  traffic 
on,  114;  supplies  shipped  down,  18; 
survey  of  land  north  of,  40;  trans- 
portation across,  70. 

Okaw  river,  see  Kaskaskia  river. 

"An  old  farmer,"  opinions  of,  on  qual- 
ifications of  convention  delegates, 
253,  254. 

Omelveny,  Samuel,  census  commission- 
er from  Pope  county,  239;  conven- 
tion delegate  from  Pope,  280;  mem- 
ber of  committee  of  revision,  268; 
representative  from  Pope  county, 
203 n;  signs  indenture  of  Morris' 
servant,  139,  140;  voted  for  changes 
in  slavery  article,  280. 


"One  of  the  people,"  opinion  of,  on 
selection  of  men  to  convention,  250- 
251,  253 ;  replied  to  "An  old  fanner," 

254- 

Ordinance  of  1787,  agitation  over  in- 
dentured servitude  as  violation  of, 
214-218;  attitude  of  anti-Harrison 
faction,  189-190;  constitution  of  Illi- 
nois not  to  violate,  233,  278,  312;  Illi- 
nois organized  under,  193 ;  indenture 
law  circumvents  prohibition  of  slav- 
ery by,  138-140,  186,  187-188,  214- 
218 ;  Indiana  established  under,  184 ; 
organization  of  the  territory  north- 
west of  the  Ohio  under,  181-184; 
petitions  for  the  repeal  of  the  slav- 
ery article  of,  184-192;  territories 
bound  by  provisions  of,  207-208;  pro- 
hibits slavery,  183,  234,  313  ; 

provisions :  for  boundaries  in,  222- 
223,  226 n;  for  the  judiciary  system 
in,  198,  204;  for  regulating  suffrage 
in,  196; 

slavery  article  of  constitution  to 
conform  with,  278. 

Ottawa,  annuity  paid  to,  13 ;  cede  land, 
38,  40;  location  of,  2. 

Otter  creek,  settlement  along,  83,  84. 

Owen,  Ezra,  sergeant  at  arms  of  the 
convention,  263. 


"Pacificus,"  opinion  of,  on  slavery, 
277-278. 

Padfield,  William,  126. 

Palestine,  305;  county  seat  of  Craw- 
ford, 61-62;  Cullom  settled  in,  300; 
land  office  at,  in  1820,  p.  62;  mail 
route  through,  126. 

Palmer,  Joseph,  representative  from 
Johnson  county,  203  n. 

Palmyra,  county  seat  of  Edwards,  64; 
decline  of,  after  removal  of  county 
seat,  60,  64;  postal  service  to,  126. 


352 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Parke,  Benjamin,  chairman  of  com- 
mittee considering  suspension  of 
slavery  article,  190;  delegate  from 
Indiana  to  congress,  187;  opposed 
division  of  Indiana,  192;  reflected 
to  congress,  191 ;  resigned  as  In- 
diana delegate  to  congress,  191. 

Parkinson,  Daniel  M.,  163. 
"Pass  Christionne,"  156. 
Patoka  river,   176. 
Patterson,  J.f  176. 
Patterson,  Robert,  180. 

Peck,  John  Mason,  320;  characterizes 
educational  conditions  in  Missouri 
territory,  165 ; 

describes:  Bennett's  tavern,  77; 
settlement  in  Monroe  county,  78; 
Upper  Alton,  85 ; 

present  at  the  constitutional  con- 
vention, 262. 

Pennsylvania,  89;  Birkbeck  thought  of 
locating  in,  103;  Illinois  connected 
with,  by  water,  225;  Jones  of  Kas- 
kaskia  native  of,  201 ;  Morrison 
from,  303; 

number  of:  Germans  from,  102; 
emigrants  from,  94,  96;  non-English 
immigrants  pouring  into,  97; 

opposition  from  representatives  of, 
to  Illinois  constitution,  315;  Rey- 
nolds lived  in,  103. 

"The  people,"  opinion  of,  on  slavery 
issue,  255-256. 

Peoria,  3,  I  in,  81 ;  agent  for  Indian 
department  at,  12 ;  cede  land  in  1818, 
p.  39 ;  location  of  tribe  of,  2 ;  value  of 
Indian  presents  sent  to,  14. 

Peoria  lake,  ion,  12,  34. 

Perry  county,  formed  from  part  of: 
Jackson,  74;  Randolph,  75. 

Perryville  (Perrysville),  decline  of, 
after  loss  of  county  seat,  60;  disap- 
peared, 87;  distance  of  Augusta 
from,  147;  mail  route  to,  126;  postal 


Perryville  (cont.) 

service  to,  126;  proposed  for  county 
seat,  86. 

Philadelphia,  120,  272,  320;  advertise- 
ment of  merchandise  from,  144-145 ; 
Barnsback  lived  in,  103;  Birkbeck's 
book  published  in,  108,  112. 

Phillips,  Joseph,  candidate  for  supreme 
judge,  304;  elected  supreme  judge, 
304;  political  activity  of,  202;  secre- 
tary of  the  territory,  202. 

Phill's  creek,  settlement  along,  83. 

Piankashaw  (Piankeshaw),  39;  cede 
land  in  1805,  p.  37 ;  land  cession  from, 

1 10. 

Piasa,  155. 

Piasa  creek,  extent  of  settlement 
along,  84. 

Piatt,  Benjamin  M.,  protested  against 
the  election  of  Bond  delegate  to  con- 
gress, 197. 

Pitkin  [Timothy],  insisted  on  authentic 
information  about  population,  312; 
representative  from  Connecticut,  312. 

Pittsburgh,  68;  advertisement  of  mer- 
chandise from,  145;  Eddy  and  Kim- 
mel  from,  172;  shipping  port  for 
western  supplies,  18. 

Piqua,  agency  of  Indian  department 
at,  12. 

Plumb  Hill  precinct,  81. 

Poindexter  [George],  attitude  of,  to- 
ward slavery  article,  313-314;  mem- 
ber of  committee  to  consider  consti- 
tution, 312;  representative  from  Mis- 
sissippi, 311. 

Pope,  Nathaniel,  257;  assisted  Eddy 
and  Kimmel  in  securing  permission 
to  print  federal  laws,  172;  Birkbeck 
in  correspondence  with,  108;  com- 
ments on  the  results  of  the  passage 
of  the  enabling  act,  231-232;  Cook  a 
nephew  of,  194;  defeated  for  reprc- 


INDEX 


353 


Pope  (cont.) 

sentative  in  legislature,  301 ;  entered 
land  at  Pope's  Bluff,  289 ;  from  Ken- 
tucky, 193;  head  of  committee  on 
amendments  proposed  by  the  senate, 
229;  interest  of,  in  land,  155 ;  intro- 
duced the  enabling  bill  in  January, 
1818,  p.  224;  laid  the  memorial  for 
statehood  before  congress,  220-221 ; 
member  of  the  Edwards  faction,  201 ; 
objected  to  the  exemption  of  the 
bounty  lands  from  taxation,  227; 
opinion  of,  on  calling  constitutional 
convention,  241 ;  register  of  land  of- 
fice at  Edwardsville,  146,  301  n;  re- 
port of,  on  provision  for  education, 
228-229;  resigned  as  secretary  and 
gave  his  support  to  Bond,  202;  re- 
tired from  public  life,  294;  secretary 
of  the  territory,  193 ;  secured  the  ex- 
tension of  the  northern  boundary, 
224-226,  320;  secured  money  for  an 
institution  of  learning,  226;  terri- 
torial delegate,  108,  172,  209;  United 
States  judge,  224  n,  301  n. 

Pope's  Bluff,  86;  aspired  to  be  capital 
of  state,  87,  287,  289;  located  on 
the  Kaskaskia,  87,  289;  resolutions 
favoring,  for  capital  site,  290. 

Pope  county,  281 ;  census  report  from, 
264,  318;  description  and  population 
of,  70-71 ;  establishment  of,  220;  Fer- 
guson and  Omelveny  convention 
delegates  from,  280;  Field  elected 
house  representative  from,  300;  Gol- 
conda  county  seat  of,  70;  Omelveny 
census  commissioner  from,  239; 
Omelveny  representative  from,  203  n ; 
Reynolds  carried,  in  election  for 
lieutenant  governor,  300;  two  dele- 
gates for  the  constitutional  conven- 
tion apportioned  to,  228.  See  Har- 
din  and  Massac  counties. 

"Pope,  Messenger  and  Stephenson," 
owned  land  at  Pope's  Bluff,  289. 

Portlethwaite,  ,  119. 

Post   Vincents,   see   Vincennes. 


Potawatomi,  annuity  paid  to,  13 ;  Brit- 
ish presents  distributed  to,  10 ;  Clark 
to  conclude  treaty  with,  9;  location 
of,  2;  make  land  cessions,  38,  39, 
40;  population  of,  3. 

Prairie  du  Chien,  10,  18,  23 ;  agency  of 
Indian  department  at,  12;  becomes 
independent  military  establishment, 
13;  factory  at,  17;  Johnson  factor 
at,  17;  inclusion  of  population  of,  in 
census,  265;  military  establishment 
at,  9,  12 ;  trading  activity  at,  25 ; 
value  of  Indian  presents  sent  to,  14. 

Prairie  du  Long  precinct,  79. 

Prairie  du  Rocher,  78,  88;  description 
of,  77,  89 ;  on  postal  route  from  Kas- 
kaskia, 126 ;  population  of,  75 ;  road 
through,  114;  Sturgess  advertised 
school  at,  165. 

Presbyterians,  extent  of  influence  of, 
173- 

Prickett  [Abraham],  moved  the  fram- 
ing of  a  constitution,  265 ;  opposed 
White's  section  on  slavery,  281 ;  sug- 
gested Hill's  Ferry  as  a  capital  site, 
287 ;  voted  for  changes  in  slavery  ar- 
ticle, 280. 

Princeton,  126,  136; 

Birkbeck's  party:     return  to,  :o7; 
temporarily  left  at,  in  Indiana,  106. 

"Prudence,"  opinion  of,  on  slavery, 
247-248. 

Pulaski  county,  formed  from  part  of: 
Johnson,  70;  Union,  72. 

Puthuff,  Major  [William  Henry], 
agent  at  Mackinac,  10;  issues  license 
to  Farnham,  26;  reports  British  in- 
fluence on  Indians,  10. 


Randolph,  John,  presented  adverse  re- 
port to  the  petition  of  the  Vincennes 
convention,  186. 

Randolph  county,  57  n,  154; 

Illinois:     census  report  from,  264, 
318;  condition  of  courts  in,  197-198; 


354 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Randolph  (cont.) 

delegates  from,  voted  on  slavery  side, 
257;  description  and  population  of, 
75-77;  Fisher  and  Kane  convention 
delegates  from,  257,  280;  Fisher 
from,  202;  Foster  had  slave  regis- 
tered in,  305  n;  Kane  candidate  for 
the  convention  from,  232;  McFerron 
state  senator  from,  300;  McLean 
carried,  in  congressional  election, 
298;  Menard  of,  voted  against  the 
repeal  of  the  indenture  law,  217; 
Menard  representative  of,  202; 
names  of  convention  delegates 
reported  by  July  15,  p.  260;  one  rep- 
resentative assigned  to,  197 ;  one  sen- 
ator apportioned  to,  285;  petitions 
presented  by  Kane  from  Covenanters 
in,  266;  political  issue  in,  in  1816,  p. 
203 ;  Pope  defeated  as  legislative  rep- 
resentative from,  301 ;  positions  held 
by  Greenup  in,  263;  represented  by 
Fisher  in  third  legislature,  203  n ;  two 
delegates  to  the  constitutional  con- 
vention apportioned  to,  228.  See 
Perry  county. 

Indiana:  Fisher  and  Menard  of, 
signed  petition  of  1805,  p.  188-189; 
Menard  represented,  in  Indiana  leg- 
islature, 299;  men  from,  signed  peti- 
tion for  repeal  of  slavery  article  in 
1800,  p.  185 ;  Morrison's  estimate  of 
population  of,  190;  petition  from,  in 
1807  opposing  division  of  Indiana, 
190;  represented  by  Fisher  at  Vin- 
cennes,  in  1805,  p.  187;  voted  for 
advance  to  second  grade,  187 ; 

Northwest  territory:  Edgar  rep- 
resented, at  Cincinnati,  184;  estab- 
lished in  1795,  p.  183;  men  from, 
signed  petition  for  repeal  of  slavery 
article  in  1796,  p.  185. 

Reavis,  Henry,  candidate  against  Bond 
for  governor  in  Madison  county,  299. 

Reed     [Philip],     representative     from 
Maryland,  315. 


"A  republican,"  advocated  advance  to 
statehood,  211-212;  Cook  writes  un- 
der name  of,  210-211^234;  memorial 
for  statehood  embodied  suggestions 
of,  213;  opposed  slavery,  234-235, 
296-297,  320. 

Reynolds,  John,  147,  301  n;  advertised 
merchandise  in  the  Intelligencer, 
144;  characterizes  Hardin,  200;  com- 
ments on  scarcity  of  books,  168-169; 
describes  religious  observances,  179; 
elected  associate  judge,  304,  305; 
lists  members  of  factions  in  1818,  p. 
201;  gives  sources  of  early  settlers, 
96;  opinion  of,  on  "material  for  the 
bench,"  304;  writes  Edwards  about 
lawyer's  interest  in  land  claims,  154- 
156. 

Reynolds,  Robert,  typical  example  of 
an  immigrant,  103. 

Reynolds  [Thomas],  advertised  mer- 
chandise in  the  Intelligencer,  144. 

Reynolds,  William  L.,  candidate  for 
lieutenant  governor,  299;  physician 
from  Kentucky,  299. 

Rhode  Island,  Burrill  from,  229;  num- 
ber of  emigrants  from,  94. 

Richland  county,  extent  of  settlement 
in,  62; 

formed  from  part  of:     Crawford, 
60;  Edwards,  62. 

Richmond  [Va.],  107,  320;  Flower 
joined  Birkbeck  in,  103. 

Riggs,  Scott,  elected  to  state  legisla- 
ture from  Crawford  county,  301. 

Ripley,  aspired  to  be  state  capital,  87, 
287;  distance  of  Augusta  from,  147; 
mail  route  through,  126;  proposed 
town  of,  87. 

Roads,  accommodations  along,  124- 
125;  comment  on  the  condition  of, 
226;  Covenanters  refused  to  work 
on,  267;  crossed  at  Carlyle  and  Cov- 
ington,  288-289;  development  of,  114- 
119,  125-128;  Edwardsville  to  Kas- 


INDEX 


355 


Roads  (cont.) 

kaskia,  115;  extent  of  settlement 
along,  74,  240;  Flower  describes,  115; 
Fort  Massac  to  Kaskaskia,  114;  give 
value  to  land,  52;  Golconda  to  Kas- 
kaskia, 52,  70,  71,  72,  114;  Goshen,  63, 
65,  114;  Illinoistown  to  Kaskaskia, 
114;  importance  of,  to  salt  works, 
117;  Kaskaskia  to  St.  Louis,  77,  78; 
local  123-124 ;  Mason  describes  expe- 
riences on  early,  120-123 ;  memorial 
for  statehood  embodies  needs  for 
good,  213, 228;  ministers  not  to  work 
on,  271 ;  oppressive  system  of  work 
on,  252;  petition  for  betterment  of, 
115-117;  St.  Louis  to  Vincennes,  62, 
82,  114,  115,  119;  Shawneetown,  52, 
82,  83,  115,  126,  146;  Shawneetown 
to  Kaskaskia,  52,  67,  Ji,  114,  "8,  119; 
taxation  for,  set  forth  in  the  memo- 
rial, 223;  Vincennes,  57,  146;  Vin- 
cennes to  Kaskaskia,  81. 

Roberts  [Thomas],  convention  dele- 
gate from  Franklin,  280;  opposed 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280 ;  voted 
for  White's  section  on  slavery,  281. 

Rock  and  Cave,  176,  178. 

Rock  Island,  4,  10;  Fort  Armstrong 
on,  12,  21. 

Rock  river,  Crafts  sent  trading  outfits 
to,  27;  Hubbard  visits,  34;  Potawa- 
tomi  located  on,  2;  Sauk  and  Fox 
located  near  mouth  of,  2;  Winneba- 
go  located  on,  2. 

Ronalds, ,  discusses  plans  for  Eng- 
lish settlement,  in. 

Rutherford, ,  cutthroat  of  Mason's 

narrative,  119,  120,  121. 

Russellville,  fort  located  at,  61-62. 
Russia,  Coles  sent  on  mission  to,  242. 

St.  Charles  (S.  Charles),  mail  route 
to,  126. 

St.  Clair,  William,  signed  petition  for 
the  repeal  of  the  slavery  article,  165. 


St.  Clair  county,  57  n,  83,  116,  153, 
228,  236,  237,  270,  272,  309; 

Illinois:  admission  to  statehood 
proposed  by  Bradsby,  212;  Amos  of, 
voted  for  the  repeal  of  the  indenture 
law,  217 ;  Belleville  supersedes  Caho- 
kia  as  county  seat  in,  79-80;  Bradsby 
representative  from,  203 n,  205; 
census  report  from,  264,  318,  319; 
condition  of  the  courts  in,  197- 
198;  demand  for  roads  in,  114;  de- 
scription and  population  of,  79-82; 
Edwards  advertised  land  in,  154;  is- 
sues in,  in  1816,  p.  203;  Kinney 
elected  state  senator  from,  300 ;  large 
land  holdings  in,  51;  Lemen,  Mess- 
inger  [and  Thomas],  convention 
delegates  from,  280;  Matheny  repre- 
sentative from,  203  n,  205 ;  Messinger 
elected  to  legislature  from,  300; 
Moore  held  offices  in,  239,  300 ;  names 
of  convention  delegates  reported  by 
July  15,  p.  260;  one  senator  appor- 
tioned to,  285;  opposed  to  slavery, 
261;  subscriptions  from,  to  the 
Edwardsville  bank,  148;  three  dele- 
gates to  the  constitutional  convention 
appertained  to,  227;  two  representa- 
tives assigned  to,  197;  vote  in,  for 
governor,  299.  See  Clinton,  Monroe, 
and  Washington  counties. 

Indiana:  Bond  and  Biggs  repre- 
sentatives from,  at  Vincennes  in 
1805,  p.  187;  men  from,  signed  peti- 
tion for  repeal  of  slavery  article  in 
1800,  p.  185;  Morrison's  estimate  of 
population  of,  190;  petition  from,  for 
division  of  Indiana,  192;  represent- 
atives from,  did  not  sign  legislative 
petition  of  1805,  p.  188;  voted  against 
advance  to  second  grade,  186-187; 

Northwest  territory:  Bond  repre- 
sented, at  Cincinnati,  184;  name  of 
Illinois  country  under  government  by 
the  ordinance,  183 ;  men  from,  signed 
petition  for  repeal  of  slavery  article 
in  1796,  p.  185. 


356 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


St.  Genevieve,  merchants  from,  bid 
for  Illinois  trade,  144. 

St.  Jean,  ,  26. 

St.  Louis,  18,  62,  63,  69,  77,  79,  81,  114, 
123,  127,  154,  155,  288,  289;  American 
Fur  Company  encounters  competi- 
tion with  traders  from,  26 ;  banks  in- 
corporated in,  148;  Deschamps'  bri- 
gade reaches,  34;  description  of  road 
from  Vincennes  to,  119;  distance  of 
Augusta  from,  147 ;  Easton  from,  85 ; 
farmers  and  mechanics  advertised 
for  in,  143 ;  Farnham  to  trade  at,  26 ; 
furnished  funds  for  Edwardsville 
bank,  148;  Goshen  road  joined  road 
from  Vincennes  to,  114-115;  Illi- 
noistown  located  opposite,  80; 
Indians  cede  land  at,  in  1816,  p.  38; 
merchants  from,  bid  for  Illinois 
trade,  144;  post  for  receiving  sup- 
plies, 18;  postal  service  to,  126,  127- 
128 ;  road  to  Kaskaskia,  77 ;  road  to 
Vincennes,  82;  trading  activity  at, 
25- 

St.  Peter's  river,  see  Minnesota  river. 

Saint  Vincents,  see  Vincennes. 

Saline,  see  salt  works. 

Saline  county,  extent  of  settlement  in, 
67;  formed  from  part  of  Gallatin,  66. 

Saline  creek,  58;  extent  of  settlement 
along,  71 ;  salt  works  on,  66. 

Saline  river,  71,  115;  United  States 
reservation  along,  52. 

Salem,  63. 
Sales,  85. 

Salt  works,  82,  289;  benefits  to,  from 
banks,  150;  closing  of  Will's,  in  Jack- 
son county,  74-75;  cost  of  salt  from, 
311;  government  controlled,  66,  152; 
importance  of  roads  to,  117;  influ- 
ence of,  on  slavery,  280;  in  Ohio, 
116;  location  and  importance  of,  in 
Gallatin,  66-67;  operation  of,  during 
war  of  1812,  p.  68-69;  proslavery  in- 


Salt  works  (cont.) 
fluence  of,  257 ;  Shawneetown,  factor 
in    politics,    200;    slavery    permitted 
in,  280. 

Sandusky,  trading  house  at,  before  war 
of  1812,  p.  17. 

Sanford  [Nathan],  senator  from  New 
York  voted  in  favor  of  postponement 
in  passing  enabling  act,  228. 

Sangamo  country,  82. 

Sangamon  river,  Kickapoo  located 
on,  2. 

Sauk  and  Fox,  British  influence 
among,  10;  cede  land,  38-39;  Clark 
to  conclude  treaty  with,  9;  crops  of, 
4;  Farnham  traded  with,  26;  liquor 
supplied  to,  by  private  traders,  18; 
location  of,  2;  population  of,  3. 

Schultz  [Christian],  visited:  Cahokia, 
79;  Prairie  du  Rocher,  77. 

S.  Charles,  see  St.  Charles. 

Scotch-Irish,  number  of,  in  territory, 
97,  103. 

Scotland,  number  of  settlers  from,  in 
1818,  p.  95. 

Scott,  John,  delegate  from  Missouri 
territory,  230;.  petitions  for  better 
postal  service,  127. 

Scott,  Johna,  signs  indenture,   139. 

Scott,  William,  Sr.,  opposes  slavery, 
261  n. 

Scripps,  John,  account  of  one  of  the 
circuits  of,  175-179. 

Sha-wnee  Chief,  17211. 

Shawneetown  (Shawnee  Town,  Shaw- 
noetown),  53,  77,  82,  83,  105,  119, 
120,  124,  161,  240,  248,  280;  acreage 
of  land  office  sales  in  district  of, 
49-51;  advertisements  of  merchan- 
dise in  paper  of,  145-146;  arrival  in, 
of  Flower's  parties,  109;  attracts  set- 
tlers, 102;  bank  incorporated  at,  148; 


INDEX 


357 


Shawneetown  (cont.) 
Birkbeck  to  enter  land  claim  at,  107 ; 
boundary  and  area  of  district  of,  44- 
45;  Browne  lawyer  in,  201,  304; 
county  seat  of  Gallatin,  68;  descrip- 
tion and  location  of,  58-60,  68-70; 
Eddy  and  Kimmel  established  paper 
in,  172 ;  enthusiasm  for  bank  at,  148- 
150;  Goshen  road  extended  from,  to 
Carlyle,  63,  114;  Griswold  died  in. 
200;  holdings  on  roads  between,  and 
Carlyle  and  Kaskaskia,  52;  influ- 
ence of  the  salt  works  at,  in  politics, 
200;  insufficient  appropriations  for 
road,  from  Kaskaskia  to,  118-119; 
Jones  lawyer  in,  201 ;  land  office 
established  at,  in  1812,  p.  44,  58,  200 ; 
land  purchased  near,  for  speculation, 
52;  McLean  lawyer  in,  201,  294;  pos- 
tal route  to,  126-127;  preemption 
rights  in  district  of,  48 ; 

road:  289;  from  Golconda  super- 
cedes  old  route  from  Fort  Massac, 
114;  to  Kaskaskia,  67,  71;  to  St. 
Louis,  146 ;  to  the  English  settlement, 

"5; 

sale  of  land  at,  since  1816,  p.  93; 
second  paper  established  at,  250 ;  Sloo 
and  Caldwell  connected  with  land 
office  at,  200 ;  tract  bought  at,  for  the 
English  settlement,  107;  travel 
improved  between  Kaskaskia  and, 
117;  two  general  courts  a  year  held 
at,  205.  See  land  offices. 
Shelby,  Governor  [Isaac],  Flower 
heard  of  prairies  at  house  of,  in 
Kentucky,  106. 

Shoal  creek,  57;  Edwards  advertised 
land  on,  154;  extent  of  settlement 
along,  58,  86;  Ripley  located  on,  87, 
287. 

Silver  creek,  57,  236;  Augusta  located 
on,  146;  extent  of  settlement  along, 
83,  84. 

Silvey,  indenture  of  sale  of,  138-140. 

Slade,  Charles,  bought  land  from  John 
Hill,  288. 


Slavery,  "A  friend  to  enquiry's"  oppo- 
sition to,  241,  245-246,  247,  248;  at- 
tempted interpretation  of  article  on, 
282;  attempt  to  repeal  the  indenture 
law,  215-218,  234;  Baptists  formed 
"The  Illinois  Anti-Slavery  League," 
319;  becomes  the  dominant  issue  in 
the  constitutional  convention  cam- 
paign, 218-219,  243-249,  255-258, 
296-297;  Birkbeck's  dislike  for,  103; 
"Candor"  writes  on,  237-238;  "Cau- 
tion" writes  against,  236-237;  cen- 
sus affects  controversy  on,  238; 
Coles'  opinion  on,  under  name  of 
"Agis,"  242-245,  246,  319; 

connection  of:  with  extension  of 
northern  boundary,  225,  320;  with 
the  division  of  Indiana,  184-192; 

convention  considers  proposed  ar- 
ticle on,  277-282;  Cook's  opposition 
to,  212,  234-236,  296-298,  320;  Cove- 
nanters voted  against,  267;  effect  of, 
on  population  of  Missouri  territory, 
140;  English  view  of,  136-138;  exist- 
ence of  party  against,  in  Illinois,  206; 

extent  of:  138;  in  Bond,  86;  in 
Crawford,  60;  in  Franklin,  71;  in 
Gallatin,  66 ;  in  Jackson,  74 ;  in  John- 
son, 70-71;  in  Madison,  82,  84;  in 
Monroe,  78 ;  in  Pope,  70 ;  in  St.  Clair, 
81 ;  in  Union,  72 ;  in  White,  64 ; 

faction  in  eastern  Indiana  opposed 
to,  187;  indenture  law  circumvents 
ordinance's  prohibition  of,  138-140, 
186,  187-188,  212-218;  Indiana  ar- 
ticle on,  279-280;  influence  of  Eng- 
lish settlement  on,  112;  issue  in  cam- 
paign for  representative  to  congress, 
296-298 ;  Jefferson-Lemen  compact 
relative  to,  319;  Kinney  opposed, 
259;  leaders  of  antislavery  party 
acknowledge  defeat,  261 ;  McLean 
in  favor  of,  297;  objections  to  Illi- 
nois article  of,  in  congress,  313-316; 
Ohio  article  on,  278;  opinions  of 
"Independence"  on,  248;  ordinance 
prohibited,  183 ;  permitted  in  the  salt 
works,  280;  petitions  for  the  repeal 


358 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Slavery  (cont.) 

of  the  ordinance's  article  on,  184- 
192;  provisions  for,  under  Virginia 
act  of  cession,  181,  182;  "Prudence" 
writes  on,  247-248;  salt  works  an 
influence  for,  257,  280;  supposed 
cause  for  migration  from  south,  97, 
101 ;  variety  of  positions  on  the  ques- 
tion of,  after  the  passage  of  the 
enabling  act,  233;  votes  cast  for 
changes  in  article  on,  280. 

Sloo,  Thomas,  register  of  the  Shaw- 
neetown  land  office,  200. 

Somerset  county,  Germans  from,  in 
Pennsylvania,  102. 

South  Carolina,  non-English  immigra- 
tion into,  97;  number  of  emigrants 
from,  94,  95,  96. 

Southwest  Company,  activity  of,  22- 
23;  Astor's  interest  in,  23. 

Spectator,  see  Edwardsville  Spectator. 

Speculation,  58;  advent  of  speculators, 
92 ;  appealed  to  early  settlers,  101 ; 
Birkbeck  feared  effect  of,  in  Eng- 
lish settlement,  108;  Blenheim  a 
town  of,  77;  bounty  lands  used  in, 
44,  227;  Edgar's  interest  in,  52;  en- 
tered into  discussion  of  change  of 
capital  site,  291 ;  extent  of,  S2-53» 
85,  86-87,  73-74,  104;  increase  ot 
money  fosters,  148;  land  purchased 
for,  on  lower  Ohio,  50,  52;  more  land 
purchased  for,  than  for  settlement, 
52;  Morrison's  interest  in,  52;  pre- 
emption rights  perverted  in  interest 
of,  48;  Prickett's  interest  in,  287; 
town  of  Waterloo  in  Monroe  coun- 
ty, 79 ;  universal  interest  in  land,  152- 
157- 

Spencer  [John  C],  member  of  the 
committee  considering  the  memorial 
for  statehood,  221 ;  representative 
from  New  York,  221. 

Sprigg,  William,  did  not  recognize 
right  of  legislature  to  regulate 


Sprigg  (cont.) 

courts,  198;  friend  of  Kane,  200;  re- 
fused to  hold  courts  in  accordance 
with  United  States  act,  204,  205. 

Stokes  precinct,  72. 
Standard,  Thomas,  176. 

Starved  Rock,  Deschamps'  brigade 
reaches,  33. 

Stephenson,  Benjamin,  156;  advertised 
merchandise  in  the  Intelligencer, 
144 ;  advertises  for  laborers,  143 ; 
comments  on  the  judiciary  system, 
199;  convention  delegate  from  Mad- 
ison, 256,  280;  delegate  from  Illi- 
nois territory,  54,  194;  from  Ken- 
tucky, 194 ;  held  slaves,  84 ;  interested 
in  speculation,  154,  291 ;  leader  of 
the  Edwards  faction,  194,  291 ;  mem- 
ber of  committee  of  enrollments, 
268;  opposed  changes  in  slavery 
article,  280;  protests  against  removal 
of  settlers  from  improved  land,  54; 
receiver  of  the  land  office  in 
Edwardsville,  194;  sheriff  of  Ran- 
dolph county,  194;  transferred  land 
to  Edwards  in  Kaskaskia,  154 ;  voted 
for  proslavery  measures  in  conven- 
tion, 256.  See  also  "Pope,  Messen- 
ger and  Stephenson." 

Stratton  township,  located  in  Edgar 
county,  61. 

Street,  Joseph  M.,  139,- 140;  candidate 
for  United  States  senator,  303 ;  clerk 
of  the  courts  in  Gallatin  county,  200; 
Hardin's  political  manager,  200; 
opinion  of  Kane,  200. 

Stuart,  Robert,  32;  agent  of  American 
Fur  Company,  24-25 ;  reports  on  in- 
fluence of  American  Fur  Company, 
24. 

Stuart    [Alexander],    resigned    judge- 
ship,  198. 
Stock,  extent  of  raising  of,  141-142. 

Sturgess,    ,    advertised    school    at 

Prairie  du  Rocher,  164-165. 


INDEX 


359 


Superior,  Lake,  32;  American  Fur 
Company's  traders  on  shores  of,  23. 

Surrey  [England],  settlers  for  English 
settlement  from,  109. 

Swearingen, ,  154. 

Tait  [Charles],  senator  of  Georgia, 
proposed  delay  till  census  returns 
were  made,  228. 

Talbot  [I sham],  opinion  of,  on  the 
educational  provision  in  the  Illinois 
constitution,  229;  opposed  postpone- 
ment of  passing  enabling  act,  228; 
senator  from  Kentucky,  229. 

Talbott,  Benjamin,  connection  of,  with 
the  saline,  200. 

Tallmadge  [James,  Jr.],  representa- 
tive from  New  York,  313 ;  rested  op- 
position to  constitution  on  slavery 
article,  313-314.  315- 

Tamaroa,  disappearance  of,  as  dis- 
tinct tribe,  2. 

Taylor  [John  W.],  representative  from 
New  York,  226;  secures  an  amend- 
ment relative  to  bounty  lands,  226- 
227. 

Tennessee,  102  n,  168;  Claiborne  of, 
221 ;  constitution  patterned  after 
that  of,  283;  non-English  immigra- 
tion into,  97;  number  of  emigrants 
from,  94,  95,  96;  Phillips  from,  202; 
pioneers  from,  101 ;  Reynolds  lived 
in,  103. 

Tennessee  river,  71,  114. 

Thomas,  Jesse  B.,  candidate  for  United 
States  senator,  303;  established  first 
carding  machines,  152 n;  friend  of 
Kane,  200;  headed  movement  for 
division  of  Indiana,  192;  held  courts 
in  accordance  with  United  States 
act,  204 ;  introduced  bill  for  grant  for 
capital  site,  310;  Jones  of  Kaskaskia 
candidate  against,  as  delegate  to  con- 
gress in  1808,  p.  201 ;  Jones  of  Shaw- 


Thomas  (cont.) 

neetown  half  brother  of,  201 ;  leader, 
with  Kane,  of  the  anti-Edwards  fac- 
tion, 201,  291 ;  objected  to  the  au- 
thority of  the  legislature  over  the 
judges,  198;  opposed  to  speculation, 
206,  291 ;  president  of  convention, 
263 ;  represented  Dearborn  county  at 
Vincennes  in  1805,  p.  187;  secured 
office  of  judgeship,  192 ;  senator,  303, 
316;  signed  petition  of  1805,  p.  189; 
succeeded  Parke  as  Indiana  delegate 
to  congress,  191 ;  supporter  of  Har- 
din,  200. 

Thomas,  John,  elected  treasurer,  305; 
report  of,  310. 

Towles  [Thomas],  held  courts  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  United  States  act, 
204;  succeeded  Griswold  as  judge, 
200. 

Trade,  American  Fur  Company  con- 
ducts, 22-35 ;  amount  of,  at  Carmi, 
65;  articles  of  French,  90;  beginning 
of,  with  introduction  of  eastern  man- 
ufactures, 147;  effect  of  waterways 
on,  113; 

extent  of :  among  pioneers,  131 ; 
at  Kaskaskia,  76;  British,  with 
Indians,  9,  1 1 ; 

Indians'  dependence  on  white  peo- 
ple for,  8-9;  introduction  of  more 
money  increases,  147-148;  limitations 
of,  152 ;  merchants  advertise  for,  144- 
146;  organization  of  factory  system 
for  Indians,  15-22.  See  also  facto- 
ries. 

Trammil,  Philip,  117. 

Trimmer, ,  discusses  plans  for  set- 
tlement, iio-ni ;  led  one  of  Flower's 
parties,  109;  mentioned  in  Gallatin 
county  census  report,  264. 

Trinity,  foundation  of,  73. 

Union  county,  300;  census  report 
from,  318;  convention  delegates 
from,  voted  on  antislavery  side,  256; 


360 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


Union  (cont.) 

Cox  state  senator  from,  300 ;  descrip- 
tion and  population  of,  72-74 ;  Echols 
and  Whiteaker  convention  delegates 
from,  280;  establishment  of,  in  1818, 
p.  220;  formed  from  part  of  John- 
son county,  71;  Jonesboro  county 
seat  of,  72;  purchases  in,  52;  two 
delegates  for  the  constitutional  con- 
vention apportioned  to,  228.  See 
Alexander  and  Pulaski  counties. 

Upham,  Edward,  Crooks  gives  advice 
to,  29. 

Upper  Alton,  called  "Alton  on  the 
river"  or  Hunterstown,  85 ;  Edwards 
held  land  in,  153 ;  in  race  for  capital 
site,  310;  Peck  describes,  85. 


Vandalia,  61. 

Vanorsdal,  Simon,  advertised  lots  in 
Illinoistown,  80. 

Varnum,  Jacob,  comments  on  British 
influence  on  Indians,  n;  factor  at 
Chicago,  II,  17. 

Vermilion  county,  60;  government  sur- 
vey ran  near  boundary  between  Ed- 
gar county  and,  42. 

Vermilion  river,  37,  38,  40,  43;  land 
ceded  on,  39. 

Vermont,  Flagg  from,  129;  number  of 
emigrants  from,  94. 

Vienna,  made  county  sett  of  Johnson 
county,  71. 

Vienna  precinct,  71. 

Village  prairie,  location  of  English  set- 
tlement on,  in. 

Vincennes  (Post  Vincents,  Saint  Vin- 
cents), 38,  40,  50,  61,  176,  181,  183; 
advantage  of  an  east  and  west  divi- 
sion to,  188 ;  agency  of  Indian  depart- 
ment at,  12;  convention  held  at, 
in  1802  petitioning  for  the  suspen- 
sion of  the  slavery  article,  185;  dis- 


Vincennes  (cont) 

tance  of  Kaskaskia  from,  76;  Fos- 
ter in,  305;  French  crossed  Wabash 
from,  63,  89 ;  government  survey  ran 
through  tract  of,  42 ;  Hill's  Ferry  lo- 
cated on  road  from,  288;  Kaskaskia 
ceded  land  at,  in  1803,  p.  37 ;  Kaskas- 
kia on  road  from,  8,  115;  land  office 
at,  44;  Law  from,  296  n;  mail  route 
established  from,  to  St.  Louis,  126; 
Parke  from,  187;  preemption  rights 
in  district  of,  48-49;  representatives 
assembled  at,  to  elect  delegate  to  con- 
gress and  councilors,  187;  road  to 
St.  Louis,  57,  62,  63,  82,  114-115,  119, 
146,  240,  289;  seat  of  government  of 
Knox  county  in  1788,  p.  183. 

Virginia,  103,  134,  168,  235,  238;  Bar- 
bour  senator  from,  228 ;  ceded  claims 
to  Illinois  country  to  federal  gov- 
ernment, 181 ;  Coles  from,  242 ;  emi- 
gration from,  92 ;  Illinois  country  or- 
ganized as  county  of,  181;  Lemen 
from,  319;  non-English  immigration 
into,  97;  number  of  emigrants  from, 
94,  95,  96. 

•  Wabash  county,  extent  of  settlement 
in,  63;  formed  from  part  of  Ed- 
wards, 62. 

Wabash  river,  10,  32,  37,  40,  60,  62, 
71,  89,  106,  126,  149,  176,  264,  288, 
305 ;  American  Fur  Company  traded 
along,  24;  boundary  established  by 
the  ordinance,  183;  choice  sites  on, 
bought  up,  105;  extent  of  settle- 
ment along,  58,  61,  63,  65 ;  fur  trade 
region  in  valley  of,  25  ;  Hubbard  vis- 
its, 34;  influence  of,  on  transporta- 
tion, 1 13 ;  land  ceded  on,  39 ;  number 
of  American  Fur  Company  em- 
ployees engaged  on,  27;  Palmyra 
located  on,  64;  part  of  Foster's  cir- 
cuit, 305 ;  Randolph  and  St.  Clair 
counties  extended  to,  in  1801,  p. 
183  n;  steamboat  activity  on,  114; 
settlement  extended  up,  38. 


INDEX 


361 


Walker,  Jesse,  account  of  one  of  the 
circuits  of,  175-179;  influence  of,  in 
the  Methodist  church,  175. 

Walnut  Hill,  63. 

Wanborough,  in,  126;  founding  of, 
no. 

Warnock,  John,  appointed  judge  of 
western  circuit,  305;  candidate  for 
associate  judge,  305. 

War  of  1812,  p.  38,  68 ;  activity  of  fur 
traders  against  Americans  in,  n; 
attitude  of  French-Canadians  dur- 
ing, 16 ;  bounty  land  reserved  to  sol- 
diers of,  43 ;  British  influence  with 
Indians  during,  9-10;  emigration  re- 
tarded by,  93;  Fort  Dearborn  de- 
stroyed during,  12;  fur  traders  sid- 
ing with  British  in,  II  n;  location  of 
trading  houses  before,  17 ;  Northwest 
and  Southwest  companies  controlled 
trade  at  close  of,  22 ;  settlement  pro- 
gressed after,  61,  62,  63,  147;  sur- 
veys proceeded  quickly  after,  42. 

Washington  [D.  C],  53,  76,  172,  202, 
209,  214,  220,  309,  310,  320. 

Washington  county,  62,  281,  289 ;  Bank- 
son  convention  delegate  from,  280; 
census  commissioner  appointed  in, 
238;  census  report  of,  240,  264,  318; 
Covington  county  seat  of,  81,  287; 
delegates  from,  admitted  to  the  con- 
vention, 263;  establishment  of,  in 
1818,  p.  220;  extent  of  settlement 
in,  81 ;  formation  of,  from  St. 
Clair,  81 ;  McLean  carried,  in  con- 
gressional election,  298;  one  senator 
apportioned  to,  285 ;  opposed  to 
slavery,  261 ;  organization  of,  81 ; 
two  delegates  for  the  constitutional 
convention  apportioned  to,  228. 

Waterloo,  located  in  Johnson  county, 
7i. 

Waterloo,  foundation  of,  78-79 ;  located 
in  Monroe  county,  71  n,  78,  79 ;  pres- 
ent county  seat  of  Monroe,  78. 


Watson,  James,  carried  mail  and  pas- 
sengers from  Kaskaskia  to  St.  Louis, 
127-128. 

Watts,  Benjamin,  opposed  slavery,  261 
n. 

Wayne  county,  Illinois :    extent  of  set- 
tlement in,  64;  formed  from  part  of 
Edwards,  62. 
Indiana :    167. 

Wayne,  Fort,  agency  of  Indian  depart- 
ment at,  12;  Indians  define  limits  of 
grant  of  land  surrendered  at  Green- 
ville at,  37;  military  establishment 
at,  12. 

Welsh,  number  of,  in  territory,  97. 

West  [Hezekiah],  convention  delegate 
from  Johnson,  280;  voted  against 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280. 

Western  Intelligencer,  86,  117,  118,  124, 
127,  128,  142,  144,  148,  150-151,  153, 
154,  157,  166,  203  n,  205,  208,  209, 

2IO,  212,  217,  217  n,  22O-22I,  222,  225, 

227,  231,  234,  237,  239,  240,  241,  242, 

247,  248,  249,  255,  258,  200,  262,  272, 
277,  288,  292,  294,  296,  297,  298,  304, 

308;  name  changed  to  Illinois  Intel- 
ligencer, 172,  232;  printed  territorial 
and  federal  laws  and  proclamations, 
172-173.  See  also  contributions  by 
"Agis,"  "Anticipator,"  "Aristides," 
"Candor,"  "Caution,"  "A  Citizen," 
"Common  Sense,"  "Erin,"  "A  friend 
to  an  able  judiciary,"  "A  foe  to  re- 
ligious tyranny,"  "A  friend  to  en- 
quiry," "A  friend  to  equal  justice," 
"Independence,"  "Nemo,"  "An  old 
farmer,"  "One  of  the  people,"  "Pa- 
cificus,"  "The  people,"  "Prudence," 
"A  republican." 

Whiteaker  [John],  convention  delegate 
from  Union,  280;  voted  against 
changes  in  slavery  article,  280. 

White,  Benjamin,  commissioner  at 
Carmi,  143. 

White,  Leonard,  161,  290;  agent  at  the 
Shawneetown  saline,  200;  candidate 


362 


ILLINOIS  IN  1818 


White  (cont.) 

for  United  States  senator,  303 ;  chair- 
man of  committee  to  frame  con- 
stitution, 265;  commissioner  at 
Carmi,  143;  convention  delegate 
from  Gallatin,  280;  interested  in 
speculation,  291 ;  member  of  the  Ed- 
wards faction,  201,  291 ;  proposed 
section  for  slavery  article,  280-281 ; 
urged  moving  the  capital  to  Pope's 
Bluff,  289 ;  voted  for  changes  in  slav- 
ery article,  280. 

White  county,  69,  281 ;  Carmi  county 
seat  of,  65;  census  report  from,  318; 
description  and  population  of,  64-65 ; 
establishment  of,  220 ;  Hargrave  rep- 
resentative from,  2O3n,  300; 
McHenry  and  Hargrave  convention 
delegates  from,  280;  McLean 
expected  to  beat  Bond  in,  295;  one 
senator  apportioned  to,  285;  Rey- 
nolds carried,  in  election  for  lieuten- 
ant governor,  300;  two  delegates  for 
the  constitutional  convention  appor- 
tioned to,  228.  See  Hamilton  county. 

White  river,  176. 
Whitesides,  Jacob,  175. 

Whiteside,  William  B.,  156;  appointed 
colonel  of  the  militia,  202;  opposed 
slavery,  261  n. 

Whitman  [Ezekiel],  member  of  the 
committee  considering  the  memorial 
for  statehood,  221 ;  representative 
from  Massachusetts,  221. 


Whitney,  J.  W.,  candidate  for  asso- 
ciate judge,  305. 

Will,  Conrad,  convention  delegate 
from  Jackson,  257,  280;  leading  rep- 
resentative of  Germans,  102;  owned 
salt  works  in  Brownsville,  74;  voted 
for  changes  in  slavery  articte,  280. 

Williamson  county,  formed  from  part 
of  Franklin  county,  71. 

Wilson,  William,  candidate  for  asso- 
ciate judge,  305;  clerk  and  recorder 
of  Jackson  county,  305. 

Winnebago,  38;  British  presents  dis- 
tributed to,  10 ;  cede  land,  40;  hostil- 
ity of,  due  to  British  influence,  16; 
location  of,  2,  3;  origin  of  Dakota 
stock,  3;  population  of,  3. 

Wisconsin,  38;  attempts  to  restore 
ordinance  boundary,  226 n;  Winne- 
bago located  in,  2. 

Wisconsin  river,  10;  American  Fur 
Company's  traders  in  valley  of,  23; 
Fort  Crawford  located  on,  240. 

Wood  river,  85,  128;  road  to  mouth 
of,  114;  settlements  along,  84. 


Yale,  Kane  educated  at,  200. 
York,  58;  mail  route  to,  126. 
Young,  ,  119. 


II 


/   I^SL 


